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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25663321">Puppy</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/micdropbam/pseuds/micdropbam'>micdropbam</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>"Do I feel good about it? No, but you have to go from here, so we go from here—" [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Aftercare, Age Difference, Alpha Peter Parker, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alpha/Omega, Anal Sex, Angst and Fluff and Smut, Birthday Spanking, Childbirth, Coming of Age, Difficult Decisions, Dimension Travel, Discussion of Abortion, Domestic Fluff, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Family Drama, Family Feels, Gentle Dom, Guilt, Happy Ending, Interracial Relationship, Knotting, M/M, Mating Bites, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Miles is 17, Mpreg, Omega Miles Morales, Oral Sex, Past Sex Pollen, Peter is 40, Porn with Feelings, Praise Kink, Pregnant Sex, Reconciliation, Running Away, Sad and Happy, Scenting, Self-Indulgent, Statutory Rape, Teen Pregnancy, Way More Feelings Than Porn, scruffing</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 03:28:24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Underage</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>37,785</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25663321</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/micdropbam/pseuds/micdropbam</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A sequel (with permission) to starwheel's work Collider.</p><p>They really should have used protection when they had sex during Miles's first heat. But then again, if they hadn't been so drugged up on a combination of pheromones and alien jellyfish as to forget about condoms, they definitely wouldn't have had sex in the first place.</p><p>But they did. And it has consequences.</p><p>Miles already knows there's no choice he can make that somebody won't hurt from it.</p><p>Is it selfish not to choose the one that will only hurt him?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Jefferson Davis &amp; Miles Morales &amp; Rio Morales, Miles Morales/Peter B. Parker</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>"Do I feel good about it? No, but you have to go from here, so we go from here—" [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1878997</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>52</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>196</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/starwheel/gifts">starwheel</a>.</li>


        <li>
            Inspired by

            <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/18592285">Collider</a> by <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/starwheel/pseuds/starwheel">starwheel</a>.
        </li>

    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I really don't know much about Spider-Man or Marvel beyond having seen some, not all, of the movies, but I'm really good at Googling. I have borrowed some deliberate changes from the "Collider" work like the ease of transdimensional travel and texting, and I'm taking the movie's use of "E-616" to mean that Peter B Parker's universe is more or less the same as the Marvel "prime" universe in terms of who else is there.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"My buddy Mike said I could have his tickets to the Mets game this Sunday."</p><p>Miles is drowsy on a Monday morning. His mom did laundry for him and it smells so nice in the seat next to him in the back of his dad's police cruiser that he just wants to lean into it and go back to sleep.</p><p>"Was thinking we could go, you know?" his dad prompts when Miles doesn't respond. "Get some father-son time."</p><p>"Yeah dad," Miles says, squeezing his eyes shut and then opening them wide, repeating the action, trying to remind his body how this seeing thing works.</p><p>"So just make sure you don't leave any projects for the weekend, okay?"</p><p>"Yeah dad," Miles says again.</p><p>Ever since his parents found out he's an omega, his dad especially has been so baldly eager to reassure Miles that nothing has changed. Omegas still face a lot of prejudice, even if it's not as bad as it used to be. He's got a supportive family and his charter school is super progressive, but in the traditional way of thinking, if a guy turns out to be an omega, he's basically like a weird failed girl.</p><p>"Your mom's so excited about taking you up to Boston next week." His dad catches his eyes in the rearview mirror. "You excited?"</p><p>Miles yawns. "Yeah."</p><p>"MIT," his dad says, dragging each letter's syllable out a bit with pleasure. "It's a real good school. Boston's a pretty town. Leaves should be something, right? Autumn leaves."</p><p>"Well, I guess I'll see if I like it. Ganke's already planning to apply early admission there."</p><p>"That's good!" his dad says heartily, grabbing his coffee from the cup holder, even though his dad is already way too chipper for Miles's mood this early. "That's good that he's got a plan already. He seems like a nice kid. A fun kid."</p><p>"Yeah."</p><p>The car pulls up to the school, and Miles grabs his backpack and his mesh laundry bag and says "I love you dad" quickly before opening the door and going in.</p><p>He's so tired. He's always <em>so</em> tired these days. He barely patrols as Spider-Man, even, after he fell asleep in class and got written up for it.</p><p><em>Junior year is </em>the <em>year, Miles, </em>his dad said, staring at him with those big, I-expected-better eyes. <em>This is the year that really counts, for your college admissions. For your future. You can slack off in spring of your senior year. Once you get that envelope.</em></p><p>His stomach roils again. He's gotta get a grip on this nervous stomach he's developed. He's even barfed a few times.</p><p>*</p><p>He heads back to his dorm room when classes are done, even though the computer club is meeting that day. He wants a nap. He <em>needs </em>a nap, especially if he's gonna be able to get in even a short patrol that night. It's been a week, almost, since he last patrolled. He can't shirk this.</p><p>Ganke's at the computer club so he has the room to himself. He pulls the special transdimensional gadget that he uses to text Peter and go to his dimension out of its hiding place.</p><p>
  <em>"We'll be back to normal in the morning. Mostly normal."</em>
</p><p>But they hadn't, he and Peter. They'd fucked two more times that day, once in Miles's own bedroom. And then...</p><p>And then they hadn't seen each other.</p><p>Oh, Peter wasn't totally freezing him out. They still texted every day. But there was always some reason why they couldn't go on patrol together, or why Peter couldn't come to help Miles train, or whatever. It was coming up on two months apart.</p><p><strong>Peter: </strong>How'd patrol go last night?</p><p>It was from mid-morning.</p><p><strong>Miles:</strong> Didn't go. I'm gonna go tonight though. Wanna come with?</p><p>He's expecting no reply and then to get a "whoops I missed your text" message later, because Peter hasn't used that excuse for a week or so, but Peter actually texts back right away.</p><p><strong>Peter: </strong>Sorry bud I got my leg caught in a trap by Kraven this morning, I'll be out of commission for a bit.</p><p><b>Miles: </b>You alright?</p><p><strong>Peter: </strong>Yeah I just chewed it off, pretty sure it'll grow back.</p><p>Miles grins, even though his stomach is getting all twisty again. It's so close to their normal. Just looking at these couple lines of text, it could be their normal. But it isn't, it really isn't.</p><p><strong>Miles: </strong>Dang man make sure you get some calcium for those new bones then.</p><p><strong>Peter: </strong>I'm on it, already ordered a pizza.</p><p>Miles yawns, stuffs the gadget back in its hiding place, and puffs up his pillow a bit before closing his eyes.</p><p>*</p><p>"You should get your mitt," his dad said, "in case a ball comes our way. Never know, might catch it. Your Uncle Aaron caught a ball at a Mets game when he was a little younger than you, you know. He had great reflexes."</p><p>So Miles is staring into his closet, and he should be hunting around for the baseball mitt that's in there, but he's not.</p><p>He's staring at a plastic Walgreens bag, and the dimly visible contents.</p><p><em>"No te avergüenges, mijo," </em>his mom said, putting the bag in his hands the morning after his heat broke, "you need more, you tell me, okay? <em>Es normal."</em></p><p>Despite his mom telling him not to be embarrassed, he had been intensely embarrassed to look in the bag and see omega male menstrual supplies. Pads designed to sit in his underwear and catch blood coming out of his butt. It was even grosser than girl pads.</p><p>His mom even got him a couple different kinds, his numb brain recognized before he twisted the bag closed and threw it into his closet to forget about it.</p><p>And he <em>did </em>forget about it.</p><p>But now he's remembering. He's remembering health class, and talk about periods that he had naively assumed would never be relevant to him, but taking notes anyway because it was on the test.</p><p>
  <em>Two weeks after ovulation, if there is no conception, the body flushes out the unfertilized egg and the uterine lining via menstruation...</em>
</p><p>Two weeks.</p><p>Two weeks!</p><p>It's definitely been a lot more than two weeks!</p><p>"Miles?" his dad calls. "Can't you find it?"</p><p>Miles shuts the closet fast. "No, I can't find it."</p><p>"He has too much stuff in that closet," he hears his mom complain.</p><p>He hears his dad chuckle. "I'm always telling you the same thing about our closet."</p><p>*</p><p>When the game's over, he tells his dad he wants to go to Target to check out some video game stuff, since there's one right by the field, that he can get the subway home.</p><p>It turns out that shoplifting from Target when you can turn invisible could not be easier. He feels guilty, but since he stopped that car from smashing through that other Target's main entrance a couple months back, he figures he'd owed the cost of a two-pack of pregnancy tests.</p><p>You know, just in case one is wrong.</p><p>But as he stands in the stall, staring at two identical pairs of double lines, he's kinda wishing he hadn't grabbed the two pack.</p><p>Then he would have had at least a few more minutes of hope that it might be wrong.</p><p>He puts his hands to his abdomen. His Mets hoodie is bulky, oversized. He got it for Christmas last year and he still hasn't totally grown into it. All his hands feel are fleece.</p><p>Pregnant.</p><p>Like, two <em>months</em> pregnant.</p><p>Like... like only seven months <em>left </em>until there will be an actual <em>baby </em>pregnant!</p><p>Or, hell, don't lots of babies come early?! Could be less time than that!</p><p>He throws the tests into the garbage, washes his hands, and books it to the subway.</p><p>*</p><p><strong>Peter: </strong>How did your Mets do today? Mine were a bunch of clowns. They would have done a better job running the bases with clown shoes.</p><p><em>I'm pregnant, </em>Miles thinks.</p><p><strong>Miles: </strong>They won but it was close.</p><p>
  <em>You got me pregnant. I got me pregnant, when I shot you full of drugs and tied you down and begged you...</em>
</p><p><strong>Peter:</strong> Who'd they play?</p><p>
  <em>I should get an abortion. I know. Anybody would say that. You'd probably say that. Planned Parenthood doesn't ask for parent permission around here, I could give a fake name. Then nobody would ever know. We could act like it never happened, just like you want.</em>
</p><p><strong>Miles: </strong>Nats.</p><p>
  <em>But I don't want to. I want to have this baby. Is it an omega thing? Is that why?</em>
</p><p><strong>Peter: </strong>I'm watching baseball right now actually. West coast game. Seattle Oakland. Been a while since I got to watch so much baseball in one weekend.</p><p>
  <em>But if I tell my parents that I'm pregnant, they're gonna wanna know who did it. And they're gonna flip if I say I wanna keep it.</em>
</p><p><strong>Miles: </strong>Your leg hasn't grown back yet?</p><p>
  <em>What am I gonna do?</em>
</p><p><strong>Peter: </strong>Nearly there! Just need the toes. Can't be Spider-Man without toes, kid.</p><p>
  <em>Can I be Spider-Man and pregnant?</em>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Miles used to think that other kids must get away with a lot, way more than him. If his dad got it into his head that Miles was hiding something? It was game over before it even started. His dad would take all the training, all the skills, all the experience from being a cop, and put it towards investigating the mystery of whether Miles actually brushed his teeth (he didn't) or was it really an unavoidable accident that knocked all those pictures off the wall and smashed the glass parts (it wasn't) or what movie did he actually go to see with his friends instead of the claimed <em>Hotel Transylvania 2</em> <em>(the Visit, </em>which his parents had explicitly forbidden as too scary for an eleven year old—his parents were right).</p><p>But his dad had to first <em>suspect</em> something to turn into Jefferson Davis: Miles Misbehaviour Terminator. If Miles could just prevent that suspicion, then he could get away with stuff. He learned his dad's blind spots and how to walk in them long before he learned how to actually turn himself invisible. His uncle, for example—even with his dad knowing his uncle was bad news, his dad had trusted Uncle Aaron with him, and Miles used that to get away with so many forbidden things...</p><p>What was the point in thinking about Uncle Aaron, again?</p><p>Oh, right. Suspicion.</p><p>If you were in the situation Miles is in right now—having to actually <em>tell</em> his mom and dad (but mostly his dad) about something bad—then you were way past suspicion.</p><p>Miles knows this. He knows his dad is going to immediately know his story is BS, and his dad is gonna pull out all the stops to get the truth. And since he can't get the truth, since his father can't even <em>imagine</em> the true identity of the sire of Miles's baby—a 40 year old man from another dimension—there's no corner of his life that isn't about to get turned absolutely upside down.</p><p>The story Miles is going with is that on the way to Ganke's that fateful night, he went into heat in a park, ran into another teenager, an alpha, and they had consensual, condom-protected sex, but the condom must have failed. So far, totally unlike what they'd expect from Miles, but barely plausible. But then the rest of his story was that Miles didn't know the alpha's name, couldn't describe him ("it was too dark"), and the kicker, <em>wasn't interested in finding him.</em></p><p>His parents know him better than that.</p><p>So when his father demands his phone and his computer, he hands them over.</p><p>His dad finds his Spider-Man costume and moves right by it without even realizing that what he's touching isn't a cheap costume but the real deal, the one Ms. May Parker helped him get. He even finds the transdimensional gadget, but it looks like a toy, a prop, and it has to be unlocked to show that it's actually got a hidden screen to use for texting, so his father leaves it alone.</p><p>There are talks with the school. There are visits with doctors and social workers.</p><p>There's no patrolling as Spider-Man, because Miles is being watched way too closely for that. His parents put up cameras to catch him sneaking out, even via the window—the fire escape, they're thinking.</p><p>
  <em>If you would just tell us, if you would just tell us who he is, Miles. It's not your fault. Is he older? Is he a teacher? Is he a relative? Is there some other reason you can't tell us? Whatever it is, you won't be in trouble. Just tell us, Miles. We wouldn't have to do this if you would just tell us. We have to keep you safe from someone dangerous, someone who is taking advantage of you... if he says he loves you, it's a lie.</em>
</p><p>His school is progressive, way progressive. Miles doesn't have to drop out. It even has a teen parents program, little one teen one kid shared rooms, with the kid getting to stay in the same on-site daycare the teachers use for their kids. There's one open, so Miles gets moved in there, so he can start making it feel like a safe space so that he's used to it when the baby comes.</p><p>*</p><p>He still texts Peter every day, only now Miles is the one lying and putting Peter off.</p><p>Apparently, around three months past Miles's heat, Peter suddenly got the idea that hey, enough time had probably passed that they could really get back to normal, and started inviting Miles to patrol and asking if he could meet up.</p><p>Miles turns all of Peter's tricks against him. Agreeing, then canceling last minute. Claiming not to have seen a text until it was too late. Claiming to be injured. Claiming he's busy with this and that. Claiming he lost track of time, or ran into a villain on his way.</p><p>He also has a lot of other lies to keep track of. Lying that he's still rooming with Ganke. Lying that he's having fun doing this and that on the weekends, instead of being grounded. Lying that he's patrolling.</p><p>He doesn't have anybody that he can tell the whole truth about himself to anymore.</p><p>*</p><p>The buzz of an incoming interdimensional text wakes Miles up.</p><p><strong>Peter:</strong> You excited about Christmas break?</p><p>He squints and looks at his clock.</p><p><strong>Miles:</strong> You know it's past eleven here right? I still got one day of school left man!</p><p><strong>Peter:</strong> Oh as if teachers ever try to get anything done the last day before vacation, nobody can focus then. I woke you up?</p><p>Miles wishes he could send an angry gif instead of just text. He can't even use emoji.</p><p><strong>Miles:</strong> Yes!!!</p><p><strong>Peter:</strong> I figured you and your roommate would be playing video games or something since it'll be the last time you see each other until break's over.</p><p><strong>Miles:</strong> Ganke's asleep too. EVERYBODY IS ASLEEP.</p><p><strong>Peter: </strong>Really?</p><p>Miles is too sleepy to recognize the trap he's springing.</p><p><strong>Miles: </strong>Yeah really!! Good night! Stop texting it makes this thing buzz!</p><p><strong>Peter:</strong> How come I can see Ganke playing a video game with somebody who isn't you, then?</p><p>Now Miles is wide awake.</p><p>Peter is in this dimension.</p><p>Peter is in this dimension, one floor down, peering through the window of the dorm room that used to be his.</p><p><strong>Peter: </strong>Why are you lying to me, Miles?</p><p>Miles pushes himself up to sitting in his bed. He's well into his second trimester now, he's got a definite little belly, but it's small enough that it isn't necessarily obvious at first sight if he wears his uniform blazer unbuttoned, and if he's got his parka on you can't tell at all, he's sure.</p><p><strong>Miles: </strong>Okay, I switched rooms, it's not a big deal. Ganke and I had a falling out, I just didn't want to bother you.</p><p>Miles gets out of bed and grabs for his parka. He's not expecting Peter to be satisfied with just texts when he's caught him lying. He needs to reassure Peter and send him back to his dimension.</p><p><strong>Peter: </strong>I've been concerned about you. You've seemed depressed in your texts for a while, so I just came by to check on you. Where'd they move you? If it's the same side as your old room, flash your room light on and off for a second.</p><p>Miles double checks that there isn't any obvious giveaways that he's pregnant in plain view—no prenatal vitamins or reminders about appointments—then grabs the light switch and flickers it.</p><p>Peter's there at the window before Miles even has it fully open, and slides in. Miles leaves it open, the cold December air blowing onto his face.</p><p>It's never really dark near a window in the city. Miles can see Peter perfectly well, his stubble, the touch of grey at his temples, more noticeable now than it was when they first met in that graveyard. Even if he couldn't see him, seeing Peter is almost beside the point. His smell. His <em>smell.</em></p><p>The cool, mind-your-business attitude that he was psyching himself up to take about the imminent how-come-you-changed-rooms-and-lied-about-it accusation melts away. Miles wants to wrap his arms around Peter and just stay like that for a few hours. No, maybe one hour like that, and then they'd need to get into a position where Miles can put his face in the crook of Peter's neck, like maybe if Peter picked him up and held him, they should do <em>that</em> for at least three hours, then maybe they could go back to the hug, or—</p><p>"You look terrible," Peter interrupts his mental babble, his strong eyebrows furrowed.</p><p>Miles stuffs his hands in the pockets of his parka to remind himself not to fling his arms around Peter.</p><p>Peter closes the window and lowers the shade, then brushes against his sleeve as he goes past him to the light switch and flicks it on. He regards Miles again as the boy blinks in the light. "Correct that, you look nearly dead. What's going on with you?"</p><p>"I'm not nearly dead," Miles says defensively, "all my signs are good." Sure, the obstetrician is worried about Miles's trouble sleeping and his stress levels, but his blood pressure and weight gain have been unobjectionable and all the tests and ultrasounds have come back with no problems.</p><p>"All your signs?" says Peter, and Miles realizes too late that he worded that in a really weird way for an ordinary teenage boy. Miles sees Peter scanning every inch of him intently, from his sleep-flattened hair to the bare legs sticking out incongrously from under the parka. "You seeing a doctor about something?"</p><p>"School nurse," Miles ad-libs, "I thought I was sick but it was just a cold. You—you should go, you don't wanna catch it, I might be contagious..."</p><p>Peter's looking around the room now. Thank God he's keeping the bassinet he already purchased at his parents' apartment, Miles thinks fervently.</p><p>Then Peter stops breathing for a moment.</p><p>Peter inhales, slowly, looking directly at Miles, and Miles doesn't know why or how, exactly, but he's definitely screwed.</p><p>"Your scent's different," Peter says.</p><p><em>He knows. I am caught. There's no point—</em>Miles laughs nervously, a little high. "Uh, guess that's like... puberty? Like, developing into an omega, or something, scent's gonna change... or, or maybe it's that cold I was talking about, I've heard being sick can change your scent..."</p><p>"It's not that kind of change," Peter says. "Miles..."</p><p>Peter steps forward, he's in touching range again. With the window closed and the wind not blowing the air past him so fast Peter smells better to Miles than ever. They stand there, silently, for a few moments, both smelling each other, both unable to say anything. Miles still can't say anything, he <em>can't</em> say it, so he just unzips his parka and lets it fall.</p><p>The dorms actually get pretty hot in the winter, they keep the heat too high, and Miles is running even hotter because of his pregnancy. He's wearing boxers and that's it.</p><p>Topless, there's no mistaking what he is.</p><p>"Holy shit," Peter whispers.</p><p>"Yeah," agrees Miles.</p><p>"No, I mean..." Peter moves his hand up and down, looks away from Miles and back at him, crosses his arms, uncrosses them, puts both hands on top of his head and tugs at his hair a little. "Holy <em>shit."</em></p><p>This is about what Miles expected. "Yeah."</p><p>Peter lets go of his hair. His gaze is riveted on Miles's belly now, and he's breathing a little faster. Slowly, his shellshocked reaction changes to a wide, almost manic grin.</p><p>"Wow," Peter whispers, and he laughs. It's a giddy laugh, shaky, and Peter wipes his hand over his face and then just stares at Miles's belly some more, still smiling. "A pup... I'm smelling me, us, that's... you smell different because of <em>our pup..."</em></p><p>This is <em>nothing</em> like what Miles expected.</p><p>His parents, when they are not crying or arguing in hushed voices that he can still hear about who this awful abusive alpha is who raped their son, intend to be supportive, but they're not happy. His teachers, too, are best described as supportive but not happy. His friends think this is weird as fuck and that Miles is crazy for not getting an abortion, but in their abrasive way they're supportive too.</p><p>What absolutely nobody has been, not initially and not any time after, is <em>happy.</em> Nobody's smiled, nobody's had joy that they could barely contain, the way that the news that a pup's on the way is supposed to make people feel. Even Miles, who's been sure he wants to have the kid from the first day he knew about it, hasn't been happy. He hasn't felt <em>worthy</em> of being happy. He's known he's being selfish and making the wrong choice and all of that...</p><p>There's still a chill in the room from the window being open, but Miles feels so warm all over. He doesn't have pockets to remind him not to hug Peter anymore, and so that's what he does, moves forward and hugs him, and Peter hugs him back, and for a blissful moment Miles, too, is happy.</p><p>Then it breaks.</p><p>"Holy shit," Peter says again, and Miles recognizes <em>that</em> tone.</p><p>Guilt.</p><p>"Oh God, fuck," says Peter, and he's stepping away from Miles and pacing. <em>"Fuck,</em> Miles, why didn't you say—six months, it's gotta be almost six months—is abortion illegal in this New York, or something? It didn't even <em>occur</em> to me—you could have come to <em>my</em> New York, I would have helped you, but <em>six months,</em> I don't think that's possible, not even, that's—but you already look so <em>bad</em> like you haven't <em>slept </em>for six months—if you had just <em>said something,</em> this is all my fault, oh my God, I've ruined your life—"</p><p>"Would you shut up?!" Miles interrupts, angry beyond all reason, angry for no <em>good</em> reason, because he's angry that he didn't get to be happy for even <em>five minutes,</em> couldn't Peter have let him pretend for <em>five minutes?</em> Now he's just been brought up in order to slam down more painfully. "This is exactly why I <em>didn't</em> tell you, because I knew you'd want me to get rid of it and I knew you'd feel guilty—"</p><p>"It's not that I <em>want</em> you to get rid of it!"</p><p>"Yes you do, you didn't want kids, you didn't want them with MJ—"</p><p>"I was <em>afraid!</em> I was afraid because I thought I would be a bad father and I was <em>right,</em> Miles!" Peter's stopped pacing now, he's gripping onto the post of Miles's bed and the metal squeaks ominously for a moment when he goes too far. "I was <em>trying</em> to be a father figure to you and look what I've <em>done!"</em></p><p>"My father—I never thought of you as my <em>father—"</em> Miles is jerked out of the current crisis to be almost quaintly offended, somehow. "I've <em>got</em> a father, you're nothing like—a cool older brother, maybe, but not a <em>father—"</em></p><p>"I'm old enough to be your father. I'm twice your age, <em>more</em> than that." Peter's voice is low and miserable. "All I wanted... I wanted to help you become the hero that I should have been and now... because I was weak, because I couldn't keep my dick in my pants—"</p><p>"I drugged you, tied you down, and pulled your dick <em>out</em> of your pants."</p><p>Peter sighs. "We're not having this argument again. You're the kid, I'm the adult—I'm <em>supposed</em> to be the adult—"</p><p>"You said it yourself, first heat is really intense, you tried to stop this—"</p><p>"I fucked you <em>three times.</em> Once, maybe, <em>maybe,</em> could be excused as the drugs and the poison and the heat. Maybe even the second time, I couldn't throw you out because it would have made you go into omega drop so I <em>had</em> to keep you with me, but the third time, the third time! I wasn't even in the same dimension as you, the xylazanine was out of my system, I went out patrolling so I wouldn't keep breathing in the pheromones you'd left in my apartment. I made the <em>choice</em> to change dimensions, to come into your room, telling myself I wasn't going to fuck you again, and then <em>I fucked you again."</em></p><p>Miles didn't really have a counter-argument for that. "But if omegas drop when their heat partner rejects them, then maybe, if alphas do too, and you said my smell was in your apartment—"</p><p>"I should have <em>handled</em> it. I should never... I didn't even <em>think</em> about a condom..."</p><p>"Doesn't that prove you weren't in your right mind?"</p><p>"God damn it, Miles, it doesn't matter!" Peter hisses, and Miles sees him glancing from wall to wall, doubtless thinking about how easily they might be overheard. He steps closer to Miles. "Fine, have it your way, I'm not responsible—you couldn't be responsible either because you're a <em>kid.</em> You're a kid, you're supposed to—you're supposed to be in that other room with that other kid—"</p><p>"Ganke."</p><p>"—that other kid, playing video games and eating junk and staying up too late on a school night, you're supposed to be making <em>that</em> kind of bad decision. You shouldn't be pregnant, you can't handle this by yourself... you're not supposed... you shouldn't be alone, when you're pregnant..."</p><p>Miles wants to touch Peter again so bad that it's almost physically painful. "Yeah, well... I shouldn't be Spider-Man, either, but here I am. I got bit by a radioactive spider and then I got fucked by a Spider-Man."</p><p>Peter laughs before he can catch himself. "That's not—" <em>funny,</em> he tries to stay sternly, can't do it, and then laughs again, but resigned. "Okay, it's funny, but..."</p><p>"You helped me," Miles says quietly. "Not just the heat, but I mean... I was out of my mind, dude. If I hadn't fixated on <em>you...</em> If I'd just gone for some random alpha—"</p><p>Peter tenses. "I thought I told you before not to talk like that."</p><p>Miles remembers very well what happened when Peter told him not to mention fucking other alphas as a possibility, and shivers. "Point is, I mean, I would have had the same problem only worse, but somebody else wouldn't be... it <em>couldn't</em> be as good as it was with you, and..."</p><p>Miles no longer knows where he's going with this. When he started, he was trying to reassure Peter that Peter was actually the best possible option out of a sea of worse dangers, and therefore Peter should be glad that it went that way.</p><p>But now all he's thinking about was how good it was. How it felt, how Peter smelled, and looked at him, and touched him, how Peter's penis tasted, and felt in his ass, and how Peter kissed him and called him <em>puppy...</em></p><p>He's beyond warm and well into hot, now. He can feel himself getting wet, back there, and he knows Peter can smell it from the way his face changes, and it's all so mixed up and embarrassing that suddenly he wants to cry, too, even though he's aroused.</p><p>"This is really messed up," he says, his voice cracking, willing himself not to cry.</p><p>"Oh, puppy," Peter says, and then Miles really can't stop himself. He's crying into Peter's shoulder, and Peter's weathered hands are touching his bare back so gently, and it's so good but Miles can't even pretend it's going to last anymore.</p><p>"I missed you," Miles sobs, "I missed you so much. Every night. I can't sleep, my body's like... it's just like, <em>where's my alpha..."</em></p><p>"Shh," Peter soothes, and his arms are bringing Miles over to his bed, they're laying down together on the twin mattress, Peter's big body crowding Miles into the wall and feeling just right to do that. It feels like Peter's the real wall, the shield that Miles has been craving, so that he can feel safe enough to really sleep.</p><p>"Scent me," Miles begs, and Peter actually does it, pulls Miles into him and lets his scent get all over him.</p><p>"You're gonna need to shower when you wake up, puppy," Peter says, tugging the blanket up, even though Miles doesn't need it. He doesn't need anything but Peter. "And open the window to air this room out. Hey. Miles."</p><p>When Miles doesn't respond, Peter sharpens it into a command. <em>"When you wake up in the morning, open the window and then shower off my scent."</em></p><p>Miles doesn't want to do that. He wants to stay in this scent forever. But it's a command and this time there's no brain-altering jellyfish to stop it from sticking. "Don't want to," Miles mutters, "but I will."</p><p>Peter chuckles, and that's the last thing Miles is aware of before he's asleep again.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>When Miles comes back to his room after showering away Peter's scent, the room is cold as hell and already doesn't smell like him, much to his chagrin. He checks the gadget and finds that Peter's texted him.</p><p><strong>Peter: </strong>Will it be safe to text you over break?</p><p>Peter's exasperating in so many ways but he always comprehends everything so fast. Miles feels a little spark of jealousy about it. Peter <em>just</em> found out he's pregnant and they had that crazy confrontation. If it was Miles on the other side, his brain would still be mush, but in the time since then, Peter's clearly already connected all the dots and realized that Miles has gotta be under intense surveillance at home, and winter break is about to start.</p><p><strong>Miles: </strong>We're going to my abuela's for Christmas and I don't know where I'll be sleeping. Don't text me first, okay.</p><p><strong>Peter: </strong>Okay.</p><p>Miles goes for breakfast, goes through classes, and goes back to his room to get packed up for break, and there's another message from Peter.</p><p><strong>Peter: </strong>I've been thinking and it's not fair for me to burden you with my guilt about this. We won't talk about my guilt anymore, okay? Just focus on what I can do to help you.</p><p>Miles isn't sure what to make of it. He doesn't want to argue with Peter about guilt anymore, either, but...</p><p>*</p><p>Christmas Eve is loud and noisy and full of familiar people and foods and traditions, and everyone pretends that Miles isn't pregnant, which Miles prefers to the alternative under the circumstances. He eats too much roast pork and rice pudding and listens to his cousins wondering about what happened to the "little Spider-Man".</p><p>Christmas Day is quieter and Miles is able to steal some time in a room alone.</p><p><strong>Miles: </strong>Merry Chinese Food and Movies Day</p><p><strong>Peter: </strong>Heh. You remembered that?</p><p>Peter told him last year that he had "semi-converted" to Judaism to marry Mary-Jane, and when Miles asked what that meant, he said that he went to the movies and ate Chinese food on Christmas but he still ordered sweet and sour pork. Miles said that sounded a lot more semi than converted and Peter said that was the story of his life.</p><p><b>Miles: </b>Of course I do man that was hilarious.</p><p><strong>Peter: </strong>Yeah. I'm mixing it up this year though, I ordered vegetarian. Trying to eat a little more clean, you know.</p><p>Miles snickers at the idea of Peter "eating clean."</p><p><strong>Miles: </strong>I ate enough pork last night for both of us then.</p><p><strong>Peter: </strong>Well, you are eating for two.</p><p>That sobers things up quickly.</p><p><strong>Miles: </strong>I do eat good stuff and take my vitamins and everything, it's just Christmas.</p><p><strong>Peter: </strong>Wasn't meant to be a criticism, sorry.</p><p>Miles doesn't know what to text after that.</p><p>*</p><p>The day that Miles is back in the dorms, he's texting Peter to ask when they can meet up, and Peter says Miles had better come to his dimension if he thinks he can manage it.</p><p>Miles rings the buzzer on Peter's building, which feels weird, but he has a feeling that if he webcrawled up the side and went in the window like normal, Peter might get worried, and he just wants to avoid that.</p><p>"Feels weird letting you in this way," is what Peter says instead of hello when he opens the door. "Sorry, I'm still eating. I went patrol earlier so that I would be free now. You want something? A drink? Help yourself."</p><p>There's Chinese take-out on the table, the familiar little cardboard folded containers with red pictures of pagodas. Miles steps in and looks at what Peter's eating. "What happened to eating clean?"</p><p>"This is clean! It's vegetarian!"</p><p>Miles laughs, and some of the butterflies in his stomach dissipate. "Dude I can <em>smell</em> the meat and I can <em>see</em> the oil."</p><p>"It's not, it's tofu, mapo tofu! They just have this genius way of making it taste good, I dunno. I've been ordering it a lot."</p><p>"Mapo tofu has meat! It has pork!"</p><p>Peter stares at him. "But it has tofu right in the name."</p><p>"It has meat and tofu!"</p><p>Peter frowns and sits at the table. "I don't think that's right."</p><p>"How can you be so smart and so dumb at the same time?" Miles goes into the attached kitchen and opens the fridge. The insides do look a little different than previous. He doesn't see any beer or soda; the latter is what he was hoping for. But there is a carton of orange juice, so he grabs that.</p><p>The cups are in the same cupboard as before and it feels familiar, this; it feels like they're gonna go patrolling after this, like Peter is gonna talk to him about how to go up against a shapeshifting villain, or something.</p><p>He sits next to Peter with his juice.</p><p>There's only the sound of Peter chewing for a long moment, then he swallows. "Your pregnancy," he says, and Miles is thinking <em>great, relaxation time over.</em> "Have you talked about it with your May Parker, gotten in touch through her with any... the government, or..."</p><p>"Why would I tell Ms. Parker?" Miles says.</p><p>"The spider venom... your abilities... it might come up during labour, or...  a doctor might notice something weird and blow your cover... in my world, at least, I'm not the only hero, there are others, other people with powers and gadgets and stuff, on the side of good and trying to help, and some of them are even in with the government, sort of... your May Parker is the only person I know who can maybe get you into contact with that world. Maybe they would have a doctor that could help you keep your identity safe."</p><p>"She's never mentioned anything like that before," says Miles, frowning. "I mean, like, if there are other heroes like that, where were they during that stuff with the Collider? How come we had to do everything?"</p><p>"I don't know. Granted, even the ones in my earth, a lot of them are more trouble than help, a lot of the time... but it could be that you're really all on your own in your earth. That's... it's been bothering me a lot. You look... well, you look a little better, maybe, but that's only because you looked <em>awful</em> last time, Miles." Peter's face is very serious. "I'm really worried. What if there's something about the spider venom that's making this pregnancy dangerous for your body and you don't know?"</p><p>"I don't think that's what made me feel awful," says Miles. This is it, this is what he came here to ask for. "I... my big thing, I told you, I wasn't sleeping. And then you came and... and you scented me?"</p><p>"Yeah, I remember," Peter mutters at the rice.</p><p>"I slept so good that night," Miles says, "and then for a few days after I slept okay, but now it's almost back to how it was before, with not sleeping. I think... I think I need you to scent me."</p><p>"You shouldn't," Peter says, still apparently addressing the rice. "We're not bonded, so, you shouldn't need scenting."</p><p>"Yeah but it's really unusual for unbonded omegas to get pregnant, right?" Miles had this counter ready. "Like, I been trying to look it up, in the library and stuff because I still don't have my own computer, and everything I find is about how pregnant omegas need to be scented by their mates. It just assumes that if you're pregnant that you have a mate, I can't find anything about—"</p><p>"Wouldn't your doctors have mentioned this?"</p><p>"My doctors don't <em>want</em> me to be in touch with whoever sired my pup. Nobody does. The doctors, my teachers, my parents—they're all convinced I'm covering up for some rapist—"</p><p>"They're right."</p><p>"You said you weren't gonna bring up that guilt shit!" Miles yells, surprising himself with how loud he made it, and drinks orange juice in order to have something to do with his face.</p><p>Peter blinks, but he doesn't seem too knocked over by Miles's yell. "You're right. Sorry. It was low hanging fruit, and we know I can't resist—" He stops again. "I'm just gonna eat. You talk again."</p><p>"I think—you said you wanted to help, you said it. I think you should scent me. I don't think that's too much to ask, when you said..."</p><p>This is coming out wrong. Miles told himself before he crossed dimensions that he was gonna ask for this but it was gonna be a strong ask. He wasn't gonna be an asshole and <em>demand</em> shit, but he wasn't gonna beg and plead and whine, either. But being here, sitting next to Peter, in his apartment, all full of his smells...</p><p>The thought of leaving and having to go without Peter's smell again is unbearable.</p><p>"It's not too much to ask," Peter says, real quiet. "Let me think a minute."</p><p>It's way longer than a minute, Peter eating, Miles sipping at orange juice that he doesn't really want anymore because the butterflies are back and multiplied.</p><p>At last Peter says, "You'd better sleep over here sometimes, then. Not every night, obviously, you'd get caught, but... if I scent you there, it'll be more likely somebody will sniff me out. If I scent you here, then you can shower before you go. Maybe... maybe once a week."</p><p>Miles didn't expect Peter to give in this quickly, and he definitely didn't expect Peter to offer to have him sleep over. "Really? You'd let me sleep over?!"</p><p>"Sleep's important," Peter says, collecting up empty paper containers and stuff to clear the table now that he's done eating.</p><p>*</p><p>Miles didn't bring a change of clothes or anything because he didn't expect to get this far, but Peter sighs and says he'll set the laundry to go if Miles wants to stay the night.</p><p>The borrowed t-shirt and pajama pants that were way too big last time fit really comfortably around his bump now, and Miles wants to make a joke about how his body matches Peter's in shape now, but he doesn't. It's not too late for Peter to get a guilt complex and cancel this.</p><p>They settle into that position that Peter did with him back then: Peter on his back, Miles cuddling into his chest.</p><p>Once again, Peter is tense to start with.</p><p>Miles thinks about saying, <em>I'm not gonna jump you this time, man, </em>and nixes that as well.</p><p>Not being able to joke around with Peter on a topic is putting a real crimp in his communication skills.</p><p>He decides to try, "Thanks for doing this."</p><p>Peter takes a slow breath in and out, but he doesn't relax that much. "Like I said, it's not too much to ask for."</p><p>Miles wants to get into that drowsy, dreamy space that his head was in when Peter scented him in the dorm, but Peter's too tense, and his words are making this sound like... like some kind of horrible ordeal for Peter. Like Miles is a burden he doesn't want, but he's taking responsibility for because of his guilt.</p><p>"Do you not want me here?" Miles blurts out.</p><p>"Huh? I said you can stay here. Your clothes are in my washing machine right now, you can't leave."</p><p>"That's not what I meant—I mean—what is it? Am I like... is it MJ?"</p><p>"Why are you always asking about MJ?"</p><p>"Weren't you trying to get her back?"</p><p>"No. She... I mean, I was, for a while, but not now."</p><p>"Why not now?"</p><p>"Miles, we should sleep."</p><p>"I wanna know why not now?"</p><p>"She had asked me to give her time, and... she figured out that I wasn't... that I was..."</p><p>It's so weird having an argument with somebody lying on their chest. "Are you trying to figure out how to lie to me without lying to me?"</p><p>Peter groans. "You are worse than a dog with a bone sometimes."</p><p>"Just tell me then!"</p><p>"Ugh, fine. She... an omega in heat's smell is really powerful, not just to alphas, other omegas can smell it, and it lingers a few days, if you aren't really diligent in cleaning it out. I wasn't expecting her to come to my place. She got mad... which, she had every right to get mad, we weren't intimate but we had both agreed not to date other people while we tried to figure out if we could make it work again. I... it's hard to tell you these things and not bring up. You know. The g-thing. The g-word."</p><p>Miles can well understand that part. He is feeling a lot of guilt right at this moment.</p><p>
  <em>I'm the reason that Peter will never get back together with MJ.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>MJ's supposed to be the one having a family with Peter. She's the one he loves.</em>
</p><p>But if he says that he's sorry, then Peter is going to insist it's his own fault, and then Miles is gonna argue back and they're gonna be right back in that awful guilt Mexican standoff again.</p><p>"Jesus," says Peter, and it sounds like how Miles feels.</p><p>"Maybe... maybe if I explain to her, not now, obviously, but when I don't look pregnant anymore—"</p><p>"No," Peter says with finality.</p><p>"But you guys are like, <em>meant to be,</em> right?"</p><p>"If there's one thing I've figured out from this multiple universe bullshit, it's that nothing's meant to be. She gave me a second chance, I failed it. Now she's moving on. She wants to have a family, she doesn't have time to see if I'm ever going to get my shit together. I hope she finds a partner who's ready to be what she needs right now. I really do. We... we don't really talk, anymore." A beat. "She hasn't blocked me on social media... so there's that." Another beat. "That's like... that means it's still an amicable divorce. I think."</p><p>"Do things <em>ever</em> go right for a Spider-Man? I mean go right and <em>stay</em> right?"</p><p>"Peter Porker seems to be doing okay."</p><p>Miles laughs. They both laugh, way more than it deserves, letting tension out.</p><p>Miles feels the baby kick suddenly, and he says, "Oh."</p><p>"What is it?"</p><p>"Um... uh, the pup's kicking..."</p><p>"Really?" Peter's response is quick, surprised, and there's just that hint of happiness in it, an echo of that lovely, dreamlike moment when Peter's conscious mind was still too in shock to process Miles's pregnancy and so Peter's alpha, his id, was in control and it was <em>euphoric</em> about knocking Miles up.</p><p>"Wanna feel?" Miles grabs Peter's big hand from where it's settled past his butt on the bed and pulls it up to splay over where Miles felt the kick. "Give it a minute, usually when he kicks once he'll kick again, he kicks a lot at night anyway—"</p><p>"'He'?" questions Peter, and then says hushed, in awe, "I felt that. Was that it? Was that him?"</p><p>"Yeah, that's him," Miles affirms. The baby moves inside him and Peter slides his hand to follow where the movement against the inside of Miles's belly is shifting, making the fabric of Peter's t-shirt bunch. "I had an ultrasound about a couple weeks ago, they said the pup's a boy and I got to see him moving around and stuff. They even did this 3d thing, they were doing it to like, check the heart and stuff, but I got to see his face, like the shape of it, and stuff, he really looks like a baby, it was really cool."</p><p>"I wish I could have seen that."</p><p>"I got some print-outs from it—some earlier ones, too, they gave me some. I could bring them." Miles is definitely going to bring them, even if Peter says he doesn't have to. He wants to see Peter's face light up looking at them.</p><p>Peter moves his hand again, and Miles helps him shift it over and down to where the movement is coming from now. "Yeah. Yeah, I'd like to see those."</p><p>Then there's quiet for a while, both of them relaxed, the only movement from their pup and their breathing.</p><p>Then the baby seems to settle again, and it's just them. Miles becomes aware, very, very aware, of how low on his body the tip of Peter's middle finger is. If it went down just a little bit farther, Peter would be able to feel Miles's coarse pubic hair through the thin fabric of the pajamas, and if it went a little farther still—</p><p>Miles grabs Peter's wrist just as Peter goes to take his hand off. It's not a real struggle, Peter stills as soon as Miles grabs onto him, it's not like...</p><p>"I think he's settled down," Peter whispers. "We should... we should..."</p><p>"What's the point in 'should,' now, anyway?" Miles whispers too. "It's not like you can knock me up twice."</p><p>Miles is getting wet, again. He hopes Peter can smell it.</p><p>"It's not..." Peter tugs slightly again, doesn't push it when Miles still doesn't let go.</p><p>"Do I really look that bad to you? I know I'm not MJ, but since I messed that up for you..." Shit, this isn't coming out right. Miles wants to sound adult and reasonable about this—about having sex, again. He doesn't want to sound like a jealous kid.</p><p>"Jesus," Peter lets out a little disbelieving laugh. "It's not—you don't look <em>that</em> kind of bad to me, that's not it <em>at all..."</em></p><p>Miles lets go of Peter's wrist and moves his hand down, quick and accurate, between Peter's legs.</p><p>Peter's cock is hard. It's gotta be uncomfortable, the way it's all caught in his underwear and that Peter hasn't been able to adjust it, and Miles pulls at the fabric to help him.</p><p><em>"Puppy,"</em> Peter says, and it's the wrong word, it's totally the wrong word if Peter really wants Miles to stop.</p><p>"Three times isn't much different than four," Miles argues. The tip of Peter's penis is poking out from beneath the band of Peter's pants and underwear now, and Miles finally gets to touch it again, touch it directly. "You wanna do it, I wanna do it..."</p><p>"What about the pup," Peter says, and Miles knows he's got him. Now it's just negotiating.</p><p>"You don't have to fuck me," he coaxes, "we could just touch each other."</p><p>When Miles grabs at the band of Peter's pants, Peter lifts his hips.</p><p>*</p><p>"Oh <em>fuck,"</em> Peter hisses. His rhythm as he drives his penis in and out is stuttery, hard and fast when he forgets himself, then way too slow and gentle again when he remembers. "You have to tell me, when I start to go too hard, you have to tell me to slow down—"</p><p>"But it feels better like that," Miles whines, and whines again because Peter is stopping again, half in and half out.</p><p>"I can't be <em>rough</em> with you." Peter's voice is what's rough. "Fuck, I shouldn't be doing this at all."</p><p>"Okay!" Miles promises quickly, because if Peter stops fucking him now, when Miles has come <em>so close</em> to getting his nut twice already, he thinks he might actually die of blue balls. "Okay, I'll tell you to slow down, I promise!"</p><p>Peter starts moving again, and Miles moans, because it feels so good and so right and because he's already figured out that Peter really likes hearing him make noises.</p><p>"This little pussy," Peter says, and it's quiet, almost lost in the sound of the squelching noise of Miles's slick leaking around where Peter's thrusting in and out, in the little cries and whimpers Miles is making as he braces himself against the headboard of Peter's bed, "this little pussy..."</p><p>He doesn't finish it, doesn't say what's he's thinking about it.</p><p>"It's yours," Miles says, and Peter <em>moans.</em></p><p>"Yeah," he snarls, and his hips snap into Miles a little faster, a little harder. It's not yet as rough as the last time Peter forgot himself and Miles hopes he can get away with not telling Peter to slow down yet. "Yeah, it's mine. My little pussy. Only mine."</p><p>"Ah—ah—" Miles cries out. Peter's rubbing against that spot inside of him just right again. "I'm close!"</p><p>"You're gonna come? You're gonna come around my cock, puppy?"</p><p>Miles wails as he does it, come spitting out onto the sheets below him.</p><p>"Oh fuck, you squeeze me so good when you do that." Peter squeezes one of Miles's ass cheeks. "God, you feel so fucking <em>tight,</em> baby."</p><p>"Ah—Peter—"</p><p>"That's right. You know who's fucking you, don't you puppy. You love this cock."</p><p>"I love it, I love it—Peter—Peter, I want—" He wants to ask for Peter's knot, again. Peter wouldn't give it to him last time and Miles wants it so bad. "In me—don't pull out—"</p><p>"You want my big knot?"</p><p><em>"Yes!</em> Yes, yes, yes—oh yes—yes, <em>yesssssss!"</em> His voice raises in pitch again because Peter's giving it to him, that last 's' escaping him like air from a punctured tire, because Peter's fallen forward and gripping him around the neck with his teeth, caging him all around with his body, and his knot's swelling up inside.</p><p>This time since Peter scruffed him before his knot started, Miles's body is totally relaxed and limp under him as the knot fills him up. Miles still doesn't know, once the high of the sex fades, why he wants the knot so bad, when it feels more weird than pleasurable, still, even if it doesn't hurt the way it did the first couple of times.</p><p>Maybe it's just omega instinct, to crave that connection. To have your alpha locked inside you. So he won't leave you.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Chapter 4</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Next week Miles comes with his own pajamas, a change of clothes, a toothbrush, and copies of the ultrasounds.</p><p>Peter gets that giddy grin looking at the ultrasounds on his couch while the television newscast talks about an incoming coldfront. "These are amazing. Wow. Wow, you can see his little fingers..."</p><p>"You can keep those," Miles says, "they're copies."</p><p>"Thanks," says Peter, still transfixed on the last ultrasound picture, the one where their pup really looks human instead of some weird sideways skeleton thing.</p><p>"I'm supposed to get another one at the 32 week appointment, cuz, uh—anyway I'm gonna get one then, so I'll get another copy with that one."</p><p>Peter looks up. "Why do you get another one at 32 weeks?"</p><p>Damn Peter and his perceptiveness. "Uh, it's just a precaution, they said omega males, the angles and stuff, we're a little at higher risk of having problems with the placenta covering the cervix. But even if it is, it just means I get a scheduled c-section. No big deal."</p><p>"It <em>might</em> be a big deal," Peter says. "If you get a c-section—you've got a healing factor, like me. They'll notice you heal <em>way</em> faster than you should from major abdominal surgery. Faster than humanly possible."</p><p>"It may not even be an issue."</p><p>"Did you talk to your May Parker yet?"</p><p>"I can't exactly just call her up, man, my dad took my phone and my laptop. The teachers and stuff have talked to my friends, too, I can't borrow their phones, either."</p><p>Peter furrows his brow and stares into space, thinking, absently shuffling the ultrasound copies back into a tidy pile, which he sets on his coffee table.</p><p>Miles looks at the TV as Peter thinks. The news is talking about how some super smart robot named Living Brain is celebrating his twentieth anniversary of assisting computer science researchers at Empire State University. It talks about how Spider-Man defeated the then-evil robot twenty-two years ago and about how a brilliant student at ESU named Peter B. Parker took the parts and reassembled them into the humanity-assisting robot it remains today.</p><p>Peter's really a genius...</p><p>The television shuts off.</p><p>"I was watching that," Miles says.</p><p>"It's late and you have school tomorrow," says Peter.</p><p>*</p><p>"You... you really do look better," Peter says while they undress. "Your skin and your eyes..."</p><p>"I told you I been sleeping better since last week."</p><p>"Guess the scenting really is helping," Peter mutters, hanging up his belt.</p><p>"And the sex," Miles says.</p><p>Peter shoots him a look.</p><p>"No, really! I was looking it up in the library—"</p><p>"What kind of library—"</p><p>"The school library, shut up, it's <em>science,</em> sex is good in pregnancy, there's prostaglandins, and oxytocin—it's science."</p><p>"Uh huh." Peter chuckles darkly. He's taken off his pants and is standing there in just his underwear, but he's got his back to Miles, so Miles doesn't know if he's aroused, aroused like Miles is. "Science."</p><p>"It—it'd be helping, too." Miles is down to his own underwear. Peter keeps his apartment a lot colder than school, and little goosebumps are rising on his arms, but he doesn't want to put on his pajamas.</p><p>"I did say I'd help."</p><p>*</p><p>Peter fucks him from behind that day and the next week too.</p><p>When's he actually in Peter's bed, Miles sleeps better than he's done since he entered high school, let alone became Spider-Man.</p><p>The nights alone, in between, he doesn't sleep quite as good, but it's still way better than it was. People notice. His friends, his teachers.</p><p>"I guess I'm just getting good at being pregnant," Miles jokes when people mention it. "Practice makes perfect."</p><p>He wishes he could keep something small, anything, with Peter's scent on it, to sleep with when they're apart, but it's too risky. His mom and dad are definitely still regularly searching his room, and while the room checks at school aren't as frequent, they're definitely still happening.</p><p>At the end of January he goes straight from school to a lab for a glucose screening, to check for gestational diabetes again. After drinking down the gross orange drink, he sits in the waiting room doing an essay for AP Spanish homework. He'd thought that since he spoke Spanish at home with his mom a lot that it'd be like a gimme class, but it turns out that the range of subjects that he actually talked about <em>in Spanish</em> with his mom were a lot narrower than he'd thought. He never talked in Spanish with his mom about his sexual orientation or climate change or how to write a formal business email, or most of the other stuff that was actually gonna be on the test.</p><p>
  <em>Los humanos de este mundo están divididos en tres géneros: los primeros son los alfa, los segundos son los beta, y los terceros son los omega.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Yo soy un omega.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Los omega no pueden vivir sin preocuparse de su celo, pero en el futuro...</em>
</p><p>The waiting room's like his dorm, too hot, and so he's taken his blazer off and he's thinking about taking the vest off too.</p><p>"Oh my God," he hears one middle aged white lady tut to another one. "Isn't that a shame. So young."</p><p>They probably think he can't hear them because he's got headphones in, but they're not connected to anything because he doesn't have his phone. They're just there to keep anyone from talking to him.</p><p>With his spider senses, he can hear every word.</p><p>"It's a big problem with <em>urban</em> youths," the other white lady whispers back.</p><p>They're in Brooklyn, they're <em>all</em> urban, but Miles knows what she means. She means black. She means Miles is a stereotype: just another pregnant black teenager. Knocked up with no mark.</p><p>
  <em>...creo que podemos crear nuevos y mejores supresores y medicamentos.</em>
</p><p>"At least he's still in school," the first lady whispers. "Poor thing."</p><p>The second lady sniffs and says, "Hmm," like she doesn't have any sympathy at all.</p><p>
  <em>Pienso que un mundo mejor es posible, para la próxima generación.</em>
</p><p>*</p><p>"You don't—oh, shit—you don't have to do this," Peter says, for about the fourth or fifth time. He said it twice before Miles even got Peter's underwear down.</p><p>Miles does not want to say <em>I know, I'm doing it because I want to </em>yet another time, when it apparently didn't sink in the first five times. Or maybe Peter doesn't believe that Miles is telling the truth. Okay, he's gotta be more explicit. He looks up at Peter's scruffy face through his eyelashes and lets the big mushroom head of Peter's penis slide off his tongue. "I like how it tastes," he says, and feels Peter's penis twitch in his hand. "I like how it smells, and how it feels on my face and my tongue. I love looking at it, it makes me so horny for you, and I really love, when my nose is down by your balls, that smells <em>really</em> good, man, it's like—"</p><p>"Enough, God!" Peter's bright red, squirming against the pillows propped up against the headboard. "I get it!"</p><p>Mentioning Peter's balls reminds Miles that he hasn't licked them in ages. He gets his face right down there, closing his eyes and inhaling slow, savouring that perfect sex smell. Miles cups Peter's balls tenderly, they're so heavy and full.</p><p>"Be careful—those are sensitive," Peter grits out.</p><p>Miles licks a stripe up and down, tongues around so he can feel the movement of the testes under the skin, breathes in again and opens his eyes to look up again and smirk. "I know, man, I got 'em too, remember?" He pulls his head back a little, regards Peter's erection as a whole. "Mine aren't as big, though... everything about you is so big..."</p><p>"You're... hah..." Peter's penis twitches again as Miles licks it. "You're catching up with me all the time."</p><p>Miles doesn't respond for a bit because he'd rather have Peter's penis in his mouth again, fat and full and delicious. He's not lying, he really does love doing this.</p><p>Peter's hand is warm as it caresses the back of Miles's neck. "You do this so good..."</p><p>The praise makes Miles hum happily before he takes Peter in all the way again, so deep it's filling his throat.</p><p>"Ohhh," Peter sighs, long and satisfied. "You gotta stop soon, puppy... gonna knot that cute mouth of yours."</p><p>That makes Miles pull off, his own face getting hot and embarrassed, especially because he pulled off so fast it made a really lewd sound. "Cute..." He wipes spit from his chin. "I'm not cute!"</p><p>"You're cute to me," says Peter, and he's <em>smiling.</em> That charming smile that oughtta be a superpower all by itself. The one that makes Miles's stomach do a flippy floppy thing and his own smile go all stupid. Especially with the way that Peter is looking at Miles, like he cares about him.</p><p>Well, that's not it, of course Peter cares about him, Miles has known for ages that Peter <em>cares</em> about him, but like... really, really, <em>really</em> cares about him...</p><p>Even in his own mind Miles can't let himself word it more directly than that.</p><p>They're staring in each other's eyes smiling for too long, the moment's gone way too long, and Miles sees the exact second when Peter realizes that what they're doing now is even more intimate than when Miles had Peter's dick in his mouth.</p><p>"Uh..." The sound out of Peter's mouth breaks the mood at once, and Miles doesn't wanna hear Peter try to walk this back.</p><p>Miles gets up on his hands and knees on the bed again, takes that familiar position, putting his butt towards Peter, so he doesn't have to see that face looking stricken instead of loving.</p><p>He hears Peter getting up on his knees, feels the bed dip beneath his weight as the alpha comes up behind him, but Peter doesn't start to fuck him. Instead, Peter's hands both slip slow, along Miles's spine, up from the top of his butt to his mid-back, and then part from each other and slide down, to cradle the swell of Miles's belly.</p><p>"How many weeks is it now?" Peter says quietly.</p><p>"Twenty-seven," says Miles. "Lucky thirteen to go."</p><p>"This is still okay? It's not too heavy or uncomfortable?"</p><p>Miles scoffs. "This? This is nothing."</p><p>"You'd tell me if anything hurt, right? Or if you had any bleeding? You haven't noticed any blood, after—the day after you've been with me?"</p><p>"I'm not that stupid," Miles says, twisting the sheets beneath him into his fists.</p><p>Peter sighs. "It's not—I just worry. I worry... about both of you, now..."</p><p>Well. It's hard for Miles to be mad at him for that. It's Peter's pup too, after all, and most of the time he's not even in the same dimension as Miles.</p><p>"I was thinking, you're getting bigger, maybe you'd more comfortable with a different position."</p><p>Miles turns over his shoulder, craning to look at Peter. "Different like what?"</p><p>*</p><p>Miles is pretty sure that Peter suggested they switch to spooning because it's impossible to make spooning rough, but the position is so intimate that he doesn't even care.</p><p>Peter scents him the whole time he's inside him—the <em>whole</em> time—and it's enough to make Miles feel high. He thinks this must be what it's like to huff whippits or something, all dopey and good. Peter kisses the back of his neck and licks behind his ear and whispers dirty praises to him.</p><p>Miles falls asleep tied together like that with Peter. When he wakes up in the morning, Peter's still got an arm and a leg over him, really cuddling him, and Miles hates having to get up and go shower all that wonderful Peter-ness off so that he can go back to school.</p><p>It's a Friday. In English class they're still studying the Dark Lady sonnets of Shakespeare.</p><p>"'Love is too young to know what conscience is, / Yet who knows not conscience is born of love? / Then, gentle cheater, urge not my amiss, / Lest guilty of my faults thy sweet self prove,'" the teacher reads aloud, then says, "Mr. Morales, how would you explain what Shakespeare is saying here in modern English?"</p><p>"Um..." Miles squints at the page where he was doodling his tag in the margins. "Uh, well... it's like, when you're in love, that love is kind of born when you fall in love, so it's something young like a pup, and pups don't know right from wrong until they get older. But at the same time, we learn right from wrong in the first place from like, our parents' love, and that kind of thing. So... then, basically, Shakespeare's saying that even though love is young, right and wrong comes from love, so love can't be wrong. So the Dark Lady shouldn't scold him for loving her, because by scolding him, she's actually the one doing wrong and breaking the rules, cheating, whatever."</p><p>The teacher looks pleased. "Excellent interpretation, Mr. Morales, well-argued." He turns to the class. "Does anyone have a different interpretation than Mr. Morales?"</p><p>*</p><p>The next Monday morning his mom comes to sign him out of the school for his obstetrician appointment.</p><p>He gets weighed, gets his blood pressure checked, pees in a cup, and pulls his shirt up for Dr. Tran to listen to the baby's heartbeat on a doppler. It's all routine at this point.</p><p>But at the end of the appointment, Dr. Tran smiles in a kind of fake way and says, "Could you go wait in the waiting room for a minute, Miles? I just want to talk to your mom for a moment."</p><p>"What's wrong?" </p><p>"Oh, the baby's just fine, Miles, it's just some other kinds of stuff that I need to talk to her about."</p><p><em>"Andate ya,"</em> his mom scolds, and Miles has to go, but it's not like a puny closed door is gonna keep him from listening.</p><p>But he doesn't get anything from eavesdropping via spider sense. Dr. Tran just tells his mom that he can see what he's talking about and that he'll talk to Mr. Davis on the phone about it.</p><p>Still, if they didn't want to say it with Miles around, it can't be good.</p><p>In his last class, his math teacher gets a call from the office that Miles is supposed to go to a meeting at the main office after class.</p><p>"Ooh Miles," some people snicker, and Miles stares at the numbers in his textbook as if there's some formula there to figure out exactly what he's in for.</p><p>He sidles in to a conference room with his dad (in his police uniform, never a good feeling), his mom, one of the school guidance counselors, and his social worker.</p><p>"Hello Miles," says the guidance counselor in that professionally empathetic way. "How are you doing today? Have a seat."</p><p>"Uh, not bad," Miles says, sitting down and figuring out possible exits. There's the obvious windows and the door he just came in through, that looks like a drop ceiling—</p><p>"You've been looking better lately," the guidance counselor continues. "Better and better, ever since winter break."</p><p>"Yeah, you know, everybody needs a break sometimes right." His eyes scan over the grown-ups. The social worker has the same expression as the guidance counselor. His mom looks worried, and his dad has that expressionless bad cop face.</p><p>"Has anything else changed for you since around winter break?"</p><p>"Lots of things are changing for me all the time," says Miles, trying to play it off like a smartass as he gestures to his middle.</p><p>"Miles," his dad says, but his mom puts a hand on his arm and he doesn't say any more.</p><p>The guidance counselor looks at the social worker, who takes over. "You're a really smart kid, Miles," she says. "You've got some real 'street smarts', right?"</p><p><em>You don't know the half of it lady. </em>"Yeah, I guess."</p><p>"Your mom and dad, and the school, have been trying to keep you safe, really hard," she says, "but you're managing to get around it somehow, aren't you?"</p><p>Miles laughs, because what else can he do? "Get around to do what?"</p><p>"Maybe meet with an alpha?" the social worker suggests. Everyone is staring at Miles's eyes, wherever he looks.</p><p>"There's lots of alphas here at school."</p><p>The social worker folds her hands together. "Miles. It's the job of everybody here at this table to make sure that you're safe. Right now, all four of the adults here are failing that job. None of us are happy with that and we can't let it go on."</p><p>"I'm totally safe," Miles says.</p><p>"You haven't been honest with us about what really happened during your heat," the social worker continues, as if Miles didn't say anything, "and you're somehow managing to get through all the protections we've tried to set up around you, to a person who is really dangerous to you."</p><p>"That's not what's happening."</p><p>"What is what's happening, Miles?"</p><p>Miles doesn't say anything.</p><p>The social worker sighs, and picks up a folder in front of her and takes a pamphlet out of it. She slides the pamphlet over to Miles.</p><p><em>Nest &amp; Nurture School For Omegas At Risk,</em> the pamphlet says at the top in soothing script. There's a picture of a green courtyard with really high fences visible in the background, and three teenagers standing and laughing together. One is pregnant and holding a school book, one is on crutches, and another is holding an infant.</p><p>"If we can't keep you safe here," the social worker says while Miles stares at the pamphlet, "then we need to put you somewhere where you can be monitored even more closely."</p><p>Miles unfolds the pamphlet.</p><p>Barred and alarmed windows. Cameras everywhere. All-beta staff. Daily psychotherapy and parenting classes as well as a 'normal' high school curriculum, whatever normal meant.</p><p>"We've really enjoyed having you here at Visions, Miles," the guidance counselor says, "and we want you to stay here with us, but we can't provide as much security and monitoring as Nest &amp; Nurture can."</p><p>"Where's—" Miles squints at the address—"Altamont?"</p><p>"It's near Albany," says the social worker.</p><p>Miles looks at the picture of the barred dorm window and the cameras in the hall and his shock wears off enough for his heart to start beating madly. He'd have to go the rest of his pregnancy without seeing Peter. Without even <em>talking</em> to Peter possibly, because it wouldn't be safe to have the gadget with him.</p><p>"It's not too late for you to tell us something now," says the guidance counselor, and when Miles looks up, everyone's got that this-hurts-me-more-than-it-hurts-you look of determination. "But this is your last chance, right now. Otherwise, we're going to have to ask your parents to go upstairs with you and pack your stuff to go to Nest &amp; Nurture."</p><p>Shit, shit, <em>shit.</em> Miles won't even have time to tell Peter what's happening.</p><p>He needs a new story, something that will buy him the rest of today, just the rest of today, at least, even if it'll never hold up—</p><p>"It's Ganke's brother," he blurts out, and from then he's just running on adreneline. Whatever comes out of his mouth next will be as much as surprise to him as anybody else.</p><p>"Ganke Lee's brother?" the guidance counselor questions gently.</p><p>"I didn't want to get him in trouble with his family," Miles says, "his parents don't even really like it that much that Ganke's friends with a black kid, if they knew their other son knocked one up... and I was really embarrassed, Ganke doesn't know and I don't want him to know, it was just a mistake that one time—"</p><p>"Slow down, Miles," the guidance counselor says, which is lucky because Miles had no idea what bullshit he might spew next. He's already begging forgiveness of Ganke's parents and brother in his head, because his parents have never been anything but nice to him when he's over at their house to do school stuff and he doesn't think he's ever said anything more to Ganke's brother than "hello". In fact he's not totally sure he remembers Ganke's brother's name. It started with G too, right?</p><p>"I can tell you've really been stressed about this," the social worker is saying gently, and Miles tries his best to understand words, "and trying to handle it alone, but these are not insurmountable problems. Nobody has to get in trouble for this, okay? We can work this out, we can get all the families around the table together eventually and I'm sure we can find solutions that everyone can live with."</p><p>
  <em>Nope, no, we definitely can't.</em>
</p><p>"Let's just calm down for today, okay?" says the social worker, glancing at the other adults. "I think we've made a real breakthrough, I'm just sorry it had to come to this. Let's let Miles go back to his room and calm down, there's no rush. We can meet again tomorrow and talk about our next steps."</p><p>Miles hugs his mom and his dad before they go, holding onto them each for too long, even when his dad says he's gotta go back on shift.</p><p>"I'm sorry," Miles says, "I just didn't want to get anybody in trouble."</p><p>They both say they love him, and Miles says it back.</p><p>When Miles gets to his room, he thinks about how he's glad they got to say I love you in person.</p><p>It might make this easier.</p><p><strong>Miles:</strong> I need to come see you NOW. Emergency.</p><p>He rummages around his room, getting together anything he might want to have, just in case he can't come back. He already grabbed his webshooters on the way from the guidance counselor's to his room; he'd hidden them inside a hall ceiling tile, way back before he told his parents he was pregnant. He sits down at his desk and starts writing notes, picking up the gadget every couple of minutes to check for messages, just in case he misses the buzz.</p><p><strong>Peter:</strong> What's the emergency? I'll meet you at my place.</p><p>Miles dashes off the note he's currently writing, gets his shit together, and dials the gadget.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I am indebted to the Spanish doujinshi translation group QVFAMMA for some Spanish omegaverse terms.</p><p>I am not myself a native speaker of Spanish. The intended meaning of the lines of essay Miles is writing is as follows:<br/>"The humans of this world are divided into three kinds: the first are alphas, the second are betas, and the third are omegas. I am an omega. Omegas cannot live without worrying about their heat, but in the future, I believe that we can create new and better suppressants and medications. I think a better world is possible, for the next generation."</p><p>Next chapter should be the last one (emphasis on should).</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Chapter 5</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"You running away from home, or something?" Peter says when they get inside the apartment, but even as he says it, Miles can see that not even Peter really means it as a joke.</p><p>"They figured out I was somehow getting scented by the alpha that knocked me up," Miles says, dropping his bag next to Peter's couch and sinking into the cushion, "and since they couldn't figure out <em>how</em> I was meeting with you, they decided they needed to send me to some kind of, like, omega jail school upstate."</p><p>"Jail school—that's gotta be an exaggeration—"</p><p>"It had <em>bars on the windows,</em> Peter," Miles says with heat, his arms crossed over his bump. "In the <em>pamphlet</em> they showed the bars on the windows. I can't live like that."</p><p>"Jesus." Peter sits down on the couch too, then gets back up before the couch cushion's even all the way down. "I'm gonna get something to drink, you want something to drink?"</p><p>"You got any soda?" Miles says hopefully.</p><p>"Eating clean, remember," Peter says. "I got... hold on..." He moves into the kitchen and yells from there. "I got ice tea!"</p><p>"Yeah, whatever!"</p><p>Peter brings back the ice tea. It's unsweetened and Miles makes a face and puts it back on the coffee table.</p><p>"Why you trying so hard to 'eat clean' anyway?" says Miles, glad to have a topic even for a moment that's not about him and all his problems.</p><p>Peter pats his gut. "Gotta deal with this," he says, a little sheepish, "I'm not young anymore, and... I dunno, it's stubborn. Even with going out as Spider-Man every day, I just can't seem to get rid of it."</p><p>"If you can still fight and save people, then so what if you have a little belly?"</p><p>Peter waves it away and drinks the ice tea as if it isn't bitter and nasty. "Not important right now." He looks at Miles side-on. "You're thinking you might not go back, aren't you."</p><p>"I don't know... I don't know <em>what</em> I'm supposed to do, man! They're gonna figure out in no time that my new story is even more bullshit than the old one, especially when my kid is born and he's <em>definitely</em> not half-Korean—"</p><p>"Why would our pup be half-Korean?"</p><p>"Doesn't matter, point is, this story won't hold up. In fact they're probably already checking to see why I didn't come for dinner and then they're going to <em>definitely</em> find out that Ganke's brother has never even touched me."</p><p>"You told them the alpha was your roommate's brother?"</p><p>"I don't even know where the idea came from! I just had to get out of that room, they were saying if I didn't tell the truth they were gonna take me upstate <em>right away.</em> I panicked!"</p><p>"Hey, it's okay," Peter soothes, "if it's stupid but it works, it's not stupid."</p><p>"But it's <em>not</em> gonna work, not if I go back, but... it's not like I can really stay here either, right? I don't have an identity here, and then there's that glitchy problem..."</p><p>Peter sighs and puts his hands on his knees. "I thought it might come to something like this. Not exactly like this, but... something, that for some reason or another, your own dimension wouldn't be safe for you. So I looked into some stuff around here."</p><p>Miles looks up at him, wide-eyed and hopeful. "You mean you got a plan?"</p><p>Peter stands up and goes over to a filing cabinet against the wall, opens a drawer, and pulls a folder out. He comes back to Miles and holds it out to him.</p><p>There's a birth certificate, a high school diploma, a New York identification card (with Peter's address on it), a social security card, an insurance card, and even a passport. All with his name—Miles Morales—and the ones with pictures had his picture, or at least someone who looked close enough to him, which was creepy because Miles couldn't remember ever posing for a picture like that.</p><p>"It's your high school ID photo with some editing," Peter says, like he's reading Miles's mind. "I borrowed it from your wallet when you slept over."</p><p>The birthdate and the SSN and everything, though, those were all different.</p><p>"How old am I, according to these?" Miles doesn't really know what year it is, in Peter's New York.</p><p>"In this world you turned nineteen on September 11, 2020," says Peter, and he sits back down on the couch. "I figured you'd want to keep the same birthday, so."</p><p>"Why nineteen?"</p><p>"So that in this universe, you were eighteen when I sired your pup," Peter says bluntly, looking at his hands. "If... if I'm going down on the birth certificate as the pup's sire, you know, if he's born in this universe, if that's what you want, then..."</p><p>"You know I'm actually seventeen now."</p><p>"I know, but the age of consent in this New York is seventeen, and as long as I was already, you know, lying, to avoid being caught as a statutory rapist, I figured I might as well make you have been eighteen. Safer." Peter scratches his head, looking guilty as hell again. "I'm pretty sure it's also a federal crime to, um, take a minor across state lines for the purposes of sex, and who knows if it counts as crossing state lines, interdimensional travel..."</p><p>Miles flips back to the high school diploma. "I graduated high school?"</p><p>"I got you good grades and some extracurriculars, too," Peter says, with a smile this time. "If you want to apply to colleges, your grades should be good enough for wherever you want to go, if you can manage the test scores."</p><p>Miles's head is swimming and he takes a drink of the nasty tea just to brace himself. </p><p>His running away was really running <em>away—</em>he hadn't even imagined that there was something to run <em>to,</em> some chance of a life where he wasn't being hounded every day by well-meaning people who only wanted the best for him, to the point where they were going to lock him up in a luxury <em>cell</em> just to protect him from the danger they thought he was in...</p><p>But he was, he was running <em>to</em> someone, wasn't he.</p><p>The same way, when the jellyfish and the heat stripped away everything, he ran to Peter.</p><p>And Peter always gave in to him. Always took care of him. Helped him figure stuff out, believed that Miles was capable and could learn...</p><p>He slaps the folder closed quickly because his eyes are getting blurry with tears.</p><p>"Hormones," says Miles, because Peter's gonna notice, Peter always notices. "The hormones make me cry real easy."</p><p>Peter puts his arm around him and Miles sets the folder down on the coffee table and just leans into Peter and relaxes, tears and all.</p><p>*</p><p>"So I live with you, now?" Miles says, sitting on the bed in pajamas.</p><p>"For the time being," says Peter, climbing in bed too. "Had to have something as your current address. We don't have to figure out everything tonight. You had a hard day."</p><p>"I know, but... like, tomorrow. What happens tomorrow?"</p><p>"I already texted this doctor I know, when you got here," Peter says, "Well, he calls himself a doctor, I'm not sure if he actually, like, went to medical school—" Peter rolls his eyes—"but I'm pretty sure he's better than any regular doctor for what we're dealing with, anyway. Remind me to ask him when we see him tomorrow if he's actually a doctor."</p><p>"Uh..."</p><p>"Okay, that was badly worded, okay, but he's the perfect person for this," Peter says, "he knows more than anybody I know about dimensional travel and also he can do magic. He sorta does the hand jive and then things happen, it's cool."</p><p>"Huh."</p><p>*</p><p>Peter hadn't been kidding around when he said he wasn't the only hero in his universe.</p><p>This universe had not only Spider-Man, but whole teams of superheroes: the X-men, the Fantastic Four, the Avengers... it was kind of overwhelming, using Peter's computer the next day and seeing all these names.</p><p>There were also way more supervillains, though, so maybe it balanced out. Most of the time Miles didn't have to stop anything worse in his universe than a purse-snatcher.</p><p>This doctor that Peter takes him to see, Dr. Strange ("I was the youngest person ever to get my MD from Columbia," he says testily when Peter asks if he's a real doctor), is apparently also a superhero.</p><p>"How come there's so many heroes here?" Miles asks while Dr. Strange is sitting in a pentagram, complete with candles, not exactly like any doctor visit Miles had ever had before. "Where I'm from, it's just Spider-Man."</p><p>"Because this is the prime universe," says Dr. Strange without opening his eyes.</p><p>"How come you get to be the prime universe?" Miles objects. "That's not fair."</p><p>Dr. Strange does open his eyes for a moment at that, but he's looking at Peter. "He <em>is</em> very young for you."</p><p>"Cool it with the mind reading," says Peter, "you know I hate when you do that."</p><p>Dr. Strange closes his eyes again and Miles, sufficiently spooked, shuts up.</p><p>Miles doesn't find out anything about his placenta or cervix from Dr. Strange, but he does find out that this transdimensional fetus has apparently sufficiently altered Miles's DNA as the carrier that both Miles and the fetus can live in either Miles's dimension or Peter's long-term without the "glitching" that Peter and the other Spiders experienced during the Collider incident.</p><p>"Textbook gestational chimera effect," Dr. Strange says, and Miles thinks that the textbooks around here must be a lot different.</p><p>*</p><p>Miles teleports back to his universe, but not New York, not even New York state. He goes into a Wal-Mart in Oklahoma and buys a prepaid phone and SIM card and then he calls his dad's number while leaning against a telephone pole.</p><p>The first time, the phone rings and rings until it goes to voicemail. Miles hangs up and tries again.</p><p>"Hello?" his dad answers, sounding more tired and awful than Miles has ever heard from him, even when Uncle Aaron died. Like it's been three years since Miles disappeared, instead of three days.</p><p>"Hi dad, it's Mi—"</p><p>"Miles," his dad says, "Miles, Rio it's Miles, Miles where are you?"</p><p>"Uh." Miles wiggles his toes inside his shoes, wondering why he didn't expect that to be the first thing his dad would say. "It kind of doesn't matter, I'm gonna leave as soon as we hang up—"</p><p>"Doesn't matter—it <em>does</em> matter, anywhere you are, even if the alpha's going to move you somewhere else, it'd be a start."</p><p>"You really <em>can't</em> track me down, dad," Miles says, getting frustrated, because he's realizing that all his parents are going to want to talk about is how to find him, and they'll never believe it <em>really</em> isn't possible. "You'll just be wasting your time."</p><p>"I'm <em>going</em> to find you, Miles," his dad says, sounding angry now, "your mother and I are <em>never</em> gonna give up on you, you hear me? Whatever this alpha's telling you—"</p><p>"Listen, dad, would you listen?" Miles says, and his father actually does stop, and at first Miles doesn't say anything, because he didn't really think that would work, so then he has to speak in a rush to stop his father talking again. "Dad, I know you guys won't give up on me, I know that, I just wish, it's, the reason I'm calling, dad, I know you guys must have been worried that maybe I'm dead, and I'm not dead, and, and, I'm gonna call you again, later, sometime... not sure when, but I'll keep calling you like this, okay, so you know I'm not dead, I'm okay—not that you're gonna believe I'm okay but at least you can believe I'm not dead, and maybe that way you won't, you know, hurt so much."</p><p>It all came out in a big rush, and when there's silence again, Miles worries that maybe the call dropped, or his father couldn't understand what he was saying or something.</p><p>"Hello? You still there?" says Miles.</p><p>"Yeah, I'm here," says his dad, and God, his dad sounds so unhappy. "You won't tell me anything about where you are? Or the alpha?"</p><p>"I really love you, dad," Miles says as an answer.</p><p>A long, long sigh. "I love you too. Always."</p><p>He talks to his mother, which is worse, because she's crying so much he can barely even understand her, except that she wants him to come home, and all Miles can say back is that he loves her and he misses her, too, but he can't come home right now.</p><p>His parents don't wanna hang up the phone, but it isn't as if they have anything to <em>talk</em> about, it's not like they can <em>chat,</em> while his parents probably think he's being held in some psychopath's basement somewhere, some nightmare serial killer who managed to brainwash their one and only pup. Eventually Miles just can't take it anymore and with shaking fingers he hangs up the phone, drops it on the ground, and sets the teleporter to take him back to Peter's dimension.</p><p>*</p><p>It's weird, but even though they'd had sex every time they met between winter break and Miles running away, at the end of two weeks living at Peter's apartment full time Miles realizes they haven't had sex once.</p><p>Peter scents him, a lot, and holds him at night, and when they watch TV together, like they are now, Miles usually ends up with his feet in Peter's lap.</p><p>Peter’s rubbing Miles’s foot absently while he stares at the horror movie on the TV. It’s really nice, especially because these days his feet are kind of swollen.</p><p>But they're not having sex, and they're not kissing, or anything else that is like lovers.</p><p>Maybe that's just natural, Miles definitely has been too depressed to be horny, thinking about his parents and everyone else and how frantic they must be trying to find someone who disappeared without a trace.</p><p>It’s all backwards and dumb, because he should be glad, right, that Peter’s being so kind and patient and letting Miles take the lead, but...</p><p>It makes it so obvious that it’s been Miles initiating it every time. It makes him remember that Peter doesn’t really want Miles, not like Miles wants Peter, he doesn’t want to <em>choose</em> Miles, it’s just that Miles has figured out how to mash the buttons of Peter’s alpha instincts so hard that he gives in.</p><p>Peter sets the foot he was working on back down in his lap and picks up the other one, still staring at the TV.</p><p>Miles moves the heel of the dropped foot in on Peter's lap, rubs it lightly against Peter's crotch through his joggers.</p><p>"Hey!" Peter exclaims, dropping Miles's other foot and grabbing back at the offending one.</p><p>"You're not hard," says Miles.</p><p>"Well no shit!" Peter almost laughs, gesturing at the television, where blood is spurting out of somebody's throat. "You think I get hard watching horror movies?! What do you take me for?"</p><p>It's completely valid, which makes Miles feel even more stupid about bringing this up and so he digs in stubbornly. "I mean you're not really attracted to me."</p><p>The speechless expression Peter gives him this time is really something. His jaw hangs, closes, moves as if to speak, hangs again, and finally says, "What in the goddamn hell are you talking about?!" He looks down at Miles's belly and something clicks, though he still sounds disbelieving when he says, "Is this some kind of body image thing? You think you look fat?"</p><p>"No, I don't mean <em>right now,</em> not attracted," says Miles, yanking his feet back out of Peter's lap and planting them on the floor to get up and waddle off. "Forget it."</p><p>Peter catches his arm and with his unfamiliar off-balance centre of gravity, Miles nearly wipes out, but Peter catches him, of course, the fucking perfect reflexes bastard, and then Miles is being cradled back in Peter's arms like he's just been dipped in a ballroom dance and he's so embarrassed he could choke on his own spit.</p><p>"You think I'm not attracted to you?!" Peter says down at him, still all incredulous, and then his face softens like Miles's face is doing something to him, like what Peter's face does to Miles all the goddamn time. "Jesus, Miles, what am I supposed to do with you?"</p><p>Miles doesn't have the slightest clue. He feels so small, being held like this, looking up at Peter like this, and he feels like he shouldn't like feeling that small, but he does, if it's Peter who's the big one. He <em>loves</em> it.</p><p>Then Peter leans down and pulls him in and they're kissing, Miles still lost and inexperienced, Peter all desperate and hot and hungry over him, his stubble scratching him, stealing the breath out of him, so that Miles has to gulp air in when Peter breaks the kiss.</p><p>"How can you still not understand that I <em>shouldn't</em> want you?" Peter says fiercely. "I fucked your whole life over, I stole you from your parents and ruined their life too, I shouldn't be <em>rewarded,</em> having you in my bed every night with my scent all over you and my pup inside you, and then on top of that, on top of that, I still want... I still want..."</p><p>Peter's staring at his neck, now, and Miles feels the hand that's cradling the nape of his neck rub at his scent glands.</p><p>"You wanna mark me?" whispers Miles.</p><p>"More than fucking <em>anything,"</em> Peter says, and it comes out all broken and sad. "I want... I want to keep you, Miles, but I shouldn't, and I shouldn't have told you, but then you come at me and say you think I'm not <em>attracted</em> to you?!" He laughs without a trace of humour. "How do you always worm this shit out of me? How do you always... How is it that I can't ever say no..."</p><p>"Didn't... didn't you mark MJ?" The MJ in <em>his</em> world was marked; Miles remembered how she wore her hair off her neck at the funeral, like the scar was the finest piece of jewelry in the world, how the news cameras zoomed in on it.</p><p>"No. We... When..." Peter presses his lips together again and says, "No, I didn't."</p><p>Well, of course, if they were divorced, if MJ was looking for somebody else, he couldn't have marked her, marking was <em>permanent...</em> "You really like me that much?"</p><p>Peter looks at Miles's lips again, and Miles hopes that Peter will just kiss him instead of answering, that he won't make Miles have to hear that it's about taking responsibility and—</p><p>"It's way beyond liking, Miles."</p><p><em>Oh, I get it, this is a dream,</em> Miles thinks as he stares up at Peter's eyes.</p><p>"I'm in love with you," says the Peter that absolutely cannot possibly actually be Peter but sure does sound and look and <em>smell</em> like him, are you supposed to be able to smell in dreams? "I shouldn't be saying this. I told myself I wouldn't try to trap you, that when you were more used to being in this dimension that I'd help you find your own life, your own friends, watch the pup whenever you wanted so you could go to college and on dates and be young and take your time to find the right person—"</p><p>"You're the <em>only</em> person," Miles interrupts, and Peter groans and it must be the wrong thing to say because then Miles is being tilted back up into sitting on the couch, and instead of holding him in a romantic embrace Peter's standing up and pacing like his biology teacher during exams.</p><p>"That's <em>exactly</em> the kind of thing that proves you're too young for how I feel about you," Peter lectures. "You don't even <em>know</em> anybody else in this dimension, you haven't <em>lived,</em> how can you make a commitment like that now?"</p><p>"Well then why can't <em>we</em> date?" says Miles, and Peter stops and stares at him. "You want me to find my own life and all that stuff and go on dates—why can't you be, like, the first person I date?"</p><p>A woman on the television screams really shrilly, and Peter winces, grabs the remote, and shuts it off. "You want to go on dates with me."</p><p>"Why not?" Miles challenges again.</p><p>"Don't make your eyes all big like that."</p><p>"This is the size my eyes always are."</p><p>"I know, that's the whole damn problem," Peter mutters. "Jesus. Alright, hell, you win again. We can date."</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Whoops, surprise extended universe cameo, and double whoops, the story is, uh, taking longer than I thought, which... they always do that, so I've gone back to "5/?" instead of foolishly thinking I know how many words I'm going to take to tell a series of events.</p><p>There will be at least one other extended Marvel universe cameo coming up next chapter, somebody who really likes Spider-Man, there's your hint.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Chapter 6</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Content warning: some brief but graphic descriptions of possible childbirth complications in a superhero omegaverse.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>At the 32 week ultrasound, Peter gets to be there.</p><p>It's not with Dr. Strange, which Miles can't help but be relieved about. It's the same Presbyterian Hospital—more or less the same, in that unsettling way, like everything—as where he saw Dr. Tran in the other universe, but instead of going to obstetrics, the directory in the main lobby has MUTAGENETIC CARE right above NEUROLOGY and NUCLEAR MEDICINE, and that's the button number that Peter presses in the elevator.</p><p>The receptionist has green skin and an extra pair of arms. "Mr. Parker!" she says, surprised. "Do you need a walk-in?"</p><p>"Nah, we're here for Morales, Miles. M-O-R-A-L-E-S, M-I-L-E-S."</p><p>One pair of hands goes clickety-clack on the keyboard while a third hand extends towards Peter and Miles. "You have the insurance card?"</p><p>Miles gets weighed, gets his blood pressure taken, and pees in a cup.</p><p>Dr. Rosenberg looks like an ordinary human, as far as Miles can tell. "Okay, so, this is your first time at our hospital... or any hospital, as far as the records I've been given."</p><p>"Yeah, uh... I guess hospital records don't really go across dimensions like that."</p><p>"Not a problem. Probably still not the weirdest thing I've seen this week."</p><p>It's a long appointment since they have to go over a lot of stuff, including stuff Miles has never talked with a doctor about, like the whole radioactive spider bite, and Peter seems restless and distracted, fidgeting with one of those little Newton's Cradle toys on the doctor's desk, until the time comes for the ultrasound.</p><p>"Is that good? Is that normal?" Peter keeps interrupting. "The doctors in the other dimension didn't know anything about mutations. Is there anything different? Can you tell yet?"</p><p>"I can't tell you anything if you don't let me finish a sentence," says Dr. Rosenberg. "Let's focus on the diagnostic purpose of this ultrasound before we move into speculation."</p><p>"Right. Right, sorry."</p><p>"So there's no placenta previa—covering of the cervix by the placenta—which is good, because that means your risks of excessive bleeding if you go into labour spontaneously are lower," says Dr. Rosenberg to Miles. "It's your body and your choice whether or not to do a trial of labour, but I would recommend a scheduled c-section for a few reasons. First, patients with superhuman muscle strength are at a much higher risk of abnormally strong contractions, which can cause a number of other problems, such as precipitate birth—meaning a birth that happens so quickly, you may not be able to get to medical attention in time for assistance—and also lacerations and associated hemorrhaging. Secondly—"</p><p>"That first reason seems good enough to me," says Miles, trying not to think of <em>lacerations and associated hemorrhaging </em>in the context of his asshole.</p><p>Dr. Rosenberg smiles. "I'll say the second reason anyway, since maybe it'll reassure you. The second reason is that your healing factor means that we can expect a lot of the risks of abdominal delivery to be substantially lower for you, and your recovery time to be quicker than the usual six weeks, potentially <em>much</em> quicker. I've seen c-sec patients with healing factors look like they've never had a surgery in their lives the next day."</p><p>"So we'll go with that," says Miles.</p><p>"Informed consent means I <em>have</em> to explain to you the risks that <em>do</em> exist with c-section," Dr. Rosenberg says. "The major risk for you individually is that we have no data at all about how your body handles anesthesia. That's a huge question mark and not something any surgeon wants to figure out on the fly."</p><p>"You know how my body does with it," Peter says.</p><p>"But your powers are not exactly the same," Dr. Rosenberg. "I wouldn't consider it at all, it might lead to false confidence. What I want you to mentally start preparing yourself for, Miles, is the possibility of a partially or fully unanesthetized surgery. Meaning you'd feel all or some of the pain."</p><p>"I can handle pain," Miles says, still thinking it sounds better than blood cascading out of a torn rectum.</p><p>"Okay. I'll start getting you booked in for week 37, then; that's full-term. I'll want to see you in the clinic every week, so we can check for any signs of pre-term labour or other risks..."</p><p>At the end when the doctor asks if either of them have any questions, Peter blurts out, "Sex is dangerous right?"</p><p>"Anal intercourse?" Dr. Rosenberg says, matter-of-fact and unembarrassed. "Shouldn't be an issue, assuming you're free of STIs. If anything, frequent knotting is correlated with reduced lacerations, in the event that a natural birth happened after all. As for oral-genital contact, have you ever had cold sores? If so, avoid anilingus as an initial herpes outbreak during birth can be quite dangerous for the newborn."</p><p>Miles gives Peter an <em>I-can't-believe-you-just-went-and-asked-her-that-man</em> look but Peter ignores him and says, "What can I do, is there anything I can do to help him?"</p><p>Dr. Rosenberg smiles. "Emotional support, frequent scenting, these are the principal things omegas need from alphas in pregnancy. If sex is a way that the two of you connect, then medically, I recommend it."</p><p>*</p><p>Peter lets Miles squat on top of him, intertwines their fingers to keep balance while he rides him, says dirty things in a gentle voice. "I can't get enough of seeing my cock disappear into you. You look so fucking pretty when you take it."</p><p>Miles has his eyes closed, focusing on the feel of the penis inside him as he makes sharp little noises with his lower lip between his teeth.</p><p>"That's it, Miles," Peter says when he hears the whimpers increase in intensity. "Just like that, puppy. Let me see how beautiful you are when you come."</p><p>Miles's eyes are squeezed so tightly shut it's disorienting when he does come, and he has to switch from a squat down to his knees and just grind, barely lifting up and down at all, squeezing his anus tight around Peter's penis to get that extra stimulation while his own untouched penis spits out pulses of come.</p><p>When Miles stills and opens his eyes, Peter says, "You wanna stop?"</p><p>Miles can feel his own come on the bottom of his belly, from his penis being trapped underneath it. He can't see his penis looking down even when he's fully erect right now.</p><p>"Um," Miles looks at his right hand, pressed palm to palm with Peter's left. "I don't wanna stop, but..."</p><p>"We can switch positions," Peter says. "Do you wanna spoon? Or I can just take care of it myself. I have working hands."</p><p>"But I want your knot inside me."</p><p>You'd think Miles didn't weigh a thing, the ease and control with which Peter lifts him off, turns him, positions him on his side, and then lines his cock back up and slides in.</p><p>"If you say things like that," Peter grunts, "then you're definitely gonna get it."</p><p>*</p><p>Miles isn't a prisoner in Peter's apartment, but he doesn't know anyone other than Peter and it often feels weird and disorienting to go around in this Brooklyn, so alike yet so unalike from the one he knows, so he tries to keep the explorations he makes while Peter's patrolling within a reasonable distance from Peter's apartment. It seems like it's a pretty safe area, he's not worried about running into trouble, especially since he's still got his spider sense.</p><p>His spider sense <em>blares</em> when he runs into a dude wearing a bright red spandex suit with black eyeholes, suddenly just <em>there</em> when he turns a corner, but the guy just says, "Hey!" all cheerful, with his hands on his hips, leaving a good distance between them. "I keep seeing you coming in and out of Spidey's apartment these days! You must be the guy who's put the spring back in his step, right? The wobble in his web, am I right?"</p><p>"Who are you?" says Miles.</p><p>The man laughs, then cuts it off mid-laugh. "Oh. You're serious. You new around here, bud? A crossover character, maybe? An OC? Don't tell me we're in a fanfic." The man looks around suspiciously, then his body language relaxes. "Aw, hell, I won't judge, even if you're a self-insert. Like I haven't been gagging to self-insert into Spidey's arms for years."</p><p>Miles can't follow a word of what the man is saying, and starts to think that maybe this guy isn't a hero or a villain but just an actual crazy person in a suit, and <em>that's</em> what pinged off the danger. There are people walking by unbothered and cars passing but this is New York, it would take a lot more than a crazy homeless guy to make people panic. "Uh, I suddenly remembered something, but it's been nice talking—"</p><p>"Deadpool," Peter's voice interrupts, and Miles looks up to see Peter on the roof of a nearby lowrise, looking down. "What are you doing here?"</p><p>"Turning up like a bad penny," Deadpool says cheerfully.</p><p>Peter sighs. "If you've got something to talk about, we might as well go to my place."</p><p>*</p><p>"So it <em>is</em> a crossover," Deadpool crows, "that was my first guess! Double points for me!"</p><p>"That the only thing you wanted to know?" Peter's got his mask up as they stand in the kitchen. He doesn't look hostile, but he doesn't exactly look friendly, either.</p><p>"Guessing was more fun than knowing," says Deadpool. "I wanna guess other things, too."</p><p>"I don't really have time for games right now," Peter says.</p><p>"But you've been <em>fun</em> lately," Deadpool says, "fun the way you used to be fun before, and he's why, isn't he?"</p><p>"Uh," Miles cuts in, "I still don't really know who this guy is. Is he a hero?"</p><p>Deadpool and Peter both make an <em>ehhhhh</em> sound and wobble a hand back and forth at almost exactly the same moment, and Miles blinks.</p><p>"We're a lot alike except I get to say fuck," Deadpool says.</p><p>"Peter says fuck," says Miles.</p><p>"So we <em>are</em> in a fanfic. Double points for me again!"</p><p>Miles looks to Peter for help, and Peter shrugs. "He's always saying things like that. There's no point in trying to understand him. You get used to it."</p><p>"I won't lean on the fourth wall anymore, it's not that sturdy," says Deadpool, and hikes himself up onto the kitchen counter. "Okay, old buddy, old partner, old pal. Word's getting around, you know. Nothing makes word spread faster than when it's 90% speculation. Nobody can really figure out what this pregnant omega you're living with <em>is</em> to you."</p><p>"Are you saying that there might be some villain or something interested in me?" says Miles, a little excited at the prospect of action that he can't avoid being involved in after so long.</p><p>"No, <em>way</em> worse than a villain. An ex-wife. I got... two, three..." Deadpool counts on his fingers for a moment, then shrugs. "I have ex-wives, which is why I'm not taking on any new wives now, because the wife to ex-wife pipeline does terrible things. Sixty Minutes should investigate."</p><p>Miles looks at Peter, but if Peter's face showed any big reaction to Deadpool's words, Miles missed it. Instead Peter just says, calm and rational, "I'm sure we can handle this like adults."</p><p>Deadpool gives Peter a double thumbs up. "Good luck with that one then. I've said my piece, so... peace."</p><p>Then he opens the kitchen window and tries to get out, but it's pretty narrow so it takes him a little while to squeeze through it, swearing constantly, while Miles and Peter stand there silently watching.</p><p>*</p><p>Dating Peter is weird. Or rather, it's not that it's weird, but calling it a <em>date</em> feels weird, instead of calling it hanging out. Hanging out with Peter, talking with him, and laughing about stuff, and teasing each other, and eating, and doing things together—all of that just feels natural and right, and adding in more touching and scenting and even kissing just makes it better, especially since they're having sex again in Peter's bed at night.</p><p>Like here they are, Peter's taken him to see the Mets' opening day, and it doesn't feel weird to be sitting next to Peter, Miles drinking a milkshake while Peter is eating a hot dog with one hand ("Okay, even I can't eat clean at a Mets game") while his other arm is draped loosely over Miles's shoulder, except when Miles has that actual, all-put-together thought, <em>"This is a date, I'm on a date with Peter, because we're dating,"</em> and then suddenly he feels funny all over.</p><p>It's both similar and different to the last time he went to a Mets game, in the other dimension. Some of the brands are different, which is always slightly unnerving, including the corporation that paid to name the field, and the apparently "huge movie star" that threw out the first pitch was somebody that Miles vaguely recognized as a supporting character on his abuela's favourite telenovela back in his universe, the one she always had on when she babysat him.</p><p>These are definitely better seats than the ones he sat in with his dad. Peter's got them up behind home plate, which Miles is vaguely aware tends to be expensive, but since Peter's apartment is so much nicer now he must be doing okay financially.</p><p>Of course the biggest difference between the two ball games was that back in September, Miles spent the whole ball game telling himself he couldn’t possibly be pregnant, whereas now, with just two weeks until his scheduled c-section, he can literally rest his nachos on top of his belly like a shelf.</p><p>"Oh geez," Peter moans when their side's batter strikes out and it's the Phillies turn to bat. He pulls on the brim of his ball cap and stretches in dissatisfaction. "I swear, if I'm watching, they always lose. Maybe I'm the jinx."</p><p>Miles grins at him. "Hey, there's still a lot of innings left, you can't give up on them already."</p><p>"Yeah but if you expect everything to go wrong then you can't be disappointed," Peter says, but he's smiling back.</p><p>"Lemme guess, that's the story of your life too, huh?"</p><p>Peter takes his sunglasses off, and a thrill shoots up Miles's spine because Peter's gonna kiss him.</p><p>"Used to be," Peter says, leaning in. "Hasn't been lately."</p><p>Their baseball caps bump into each other and skew as they kiss, and they both start laughing about it.</p><p>"You took off your sunglasses but forgot the hats," Miles snickers against Peter's cheek. "Dork."</p><p>"I took the glasses off so I could see you better," Peter says.</p><p>"Don't get smooth on me now man," says Miles, and then they're kissing again.</p><p>They're so much in their own world that they don't even realize they're on the Kiss Cam, until they hear people all around saying words that pop out from background buzz.</p><p>"Is that Peter Parker?"</p><p>"Holy crap, that's Spider-Man, isn't it?"</p><p>"It can't be Spider-Man, that's not Mary Jane Watson."</p><p>They look at the big screen and there they are, Miles looking bewildered and Peter with a somewhat annoyed smile.</p><p>
  <em>Oh, right... in this universe a lot of superheroes have their real identities known, Peter told me his was known...</em>
</p><p>"Act like it's no big deal," Peter says out of the side of his mouth, "have some nachos."</p><p>It's truly a testament to the stability of his pup bump that the nachos haven't jostled at all, and Miles obediently grabs a chip and gets to see his blown up face eating it for a few seconds before the Kiss Cam switches to another couple.</p><p>*</p><p>A couple days later they're at home playing video games when there's a knock at the door, which is unusual, but Miles doesn't sense any danger. There's a faint omega scent.</p><p>Peter, though, looks downright hunted as he gets up, and when he opens the door, a rolled up magazine thunks into his chest.</p><p>"You are <em>really</em> a piece of work, Peter," this universe's Mary Jane Watson says as she comes in, and she doesn't even glance at Miles, but Miles can't take his eyes off of her. The same curly bright red hair and sprinkle of freckles, but she's older, older like this Peter is older. "Don't you think your text to me was missing something?"</p><p>"I told you I was in a new relationship, in case it got into the news," Peter says, holding the magazine in one hand, still all coiled up. "You didn't ask any questions."</p><p>"Because there's no way that it would have ever occurred to me to ask if this 'new relationship' was with an omega who's about ready to <em>pop!"</em> she says. "Look at that magazine!"</p><p>Peter unrolls it and looks down, and when MJ looks over towards the living room but her eyes don't <em>see</em> him, Miles realizes he's turned himself invisible unconsciously, and decides that his unconscious mind has real good ideas.</p><p>"It's a tabloid," Peter says contemptuously, closing the magazine back up after only scanning it for a couple of seconds.</p><p>"It's <em>humiliating,"</em> MJ says, and it's quiet, <em>really</em> quiet, and now Miles is second-guessing the whole invisibility thing, because now he feels like he's spying on someone who's about to have a breakdown. "It's not just the public—my friends, all the people I meet for work—everybody's laughing at me behind their hands. Spider-Man has a mid-life crisis and trades in for a young, <em>fertile</em> omega. Mary Jane Watson obviously put her mediocre career as an actress ahead of starting a family—"</p><p>"You shouldn't pay attention to—"</p><p>"I'm an <em>actress,</em> Peter, how many times do I have to tell you I <em>have</em> to pay attention to what people are saying?!"</p><p>Peter looks over at Miles and double takes, and then Miles sees him register the dip in the couch cushions and realize that Miles is still there, invisible. Mary Jane is looking too, confused, trying to figure out what's got Peter shook, but when Peter sighs she looks back at him as he says, "You're right. I should have tried harder to keep a low profile. It didn't even occur to me that this would affect your career. I'm sorry."</p><p>MJ sighs too and starts walking into the living room, right towards the couch.</p><p>"Let's—let's not have this conversation on the couch," Peter says in a rush, getting between MJ and Miles.</p><p>"Oh? Where do you propose we have it?"</p><p>"Uh... well..."</p><p>Miles can't see her, but he hears MJ take another shaky breath in.</p><p>"Just tell me this. The pup—is it yours?"</p><p>Miles stares up at Peter's broad back and shoulders.</p><p>"Yes. That omega heat you smelled—"</p><p>"I knew it," she says quietly. "I can smell him all around here. He's probably in your bedroom, right?"</p><p>"MJ... I really am sorry."</p><p>"So you get the family you wouldn't give me with someone else," she says, cold and brutal. "Good for you, Tiger. Enjoy it."</p><p>"MJ..."</p><p>She's at the door and gone without another word.</p><p>Peter closes the door and leans his head on his forearm against it.</p><p>"How come she didn't need to be buzzed in?" says Miles, as if that matters.</p><p>"Doorman would have recognized her," Peter says, and then he straightens up, seems to shake himself a little, and comes back down the little alcove into the living room, where Miles is visible again.</p><p>"You okay man?" says Miles, and Peter half-smiles.</p><p>"I thought we weren't gonna talk about the g-word," he says. Peter sits back down next to Miles, drops the <em>Hello!</em> magazine down on the coffee table, and picks up his controller. "You wanna finish this level?"</p><p>Miles doesn't pick up the other controller. Instead he picks up the magazine, and he's thinking that Peter's gonna tell him not to look, but Peter doesn't say anything as Miles opens up to the table of contents and finds the page number for "PDA from PBP! Spider-Man caught canoodling on Kiss Cam at Mets game".</p><p>The page has stills from before Miles and Peter realized they were being broadcast to the whole stadium. Them kissing, them cracking up, kissing again, and finally a super awkward still of Miles with some of that bright orange cheese-like topping on his upper lip as he chews nachos.</p><p>The weirdest part is the text. They don't name Miles but they describe him as "cute" and "adorable" and write things like "even the notoriously private Parker just couldn't resist showing off his sweetie," which kind of makes Miles want to throw up.</p><p>Then there's the stuff that must have made Mary Jane angry enough to come over. There's a little unflattering inset image of her, and they write "while sources close to the former couple insisted the split was amicable, nobody could miss how dejected the web-slinger was after the actress (best known for her role on the short-lived <em>Law &amp; Order: Bomb Squad)</em> left him after nearly fifteen childfree years together. College sweethearts, Parker converted to Watson's Jewish faith and supported her during an often uneven career, but when Parker's financial situation crashed with the bankruptcy of TGI-Spidey's, their relationship seemed to cool, and they officially called it quits in 2017, just after the death of Parker's beloved aunt who raised him."</p><p>Then they congratulate Peter on finding someone who has "clearly mended his broken heart" and express wishes for a safe delivery of their upcoming "bundle of joy."</p><p>"Penny for your thoughts?" Peter says.</p><p>"They make MJ sound like a monster," Miles says.</p><p>"Heroes and villains, kid." The couch creaks a little as Peter leans back. "Outrage sells. Guess how they'll spin it if I try to make a statement to defend MJ. Go on, guess."</p><p>Miles looks up. "They... they'll probably say you're being such a gentleman, and hate on her even more?"</p><p>"Bingo. It'll just prolong the news cycle." Peter sighs and rubs his chin.</p><p>Miles looks back at the magazine and closes it, making a face as he tosses it on the coffee table. "I can't believe they called me your 'sweetie.' Ugh."</p><p>The controller lightly hits the arm of the couch, and Peter's wrapping himself around Miles from behind, his stubble tickling at the back of Miles's neck, making him laugh and squirm. "That part wasn't so wrong."</p><p>"Oh, come on, man—"</p><p>"You do taste <em>very</em> sweet," Peter growls, pulling Miles into his lap, and Miles can feel how quickly Peter's getting hard, and he squirms even more for the pleasure of feeling the bulge press up against him more and more. "Maybe I should start calling you sweetie."</p><p>"No," Miles laughs, getting wet, wondering if Peter is gonna take him right there on the couch, if it'll make the living room have the same sex smell that their bedroom does. "Not <em>sweetie,</em> man, c'mon, that's too cheesy."</p><p>"Right, right, of course, you don't like cheesy at all," Peter teases, reaching into the front of Miles's sweatpants from the side to wrap his hand around Miles's penis. "You only like totally uncheesy names, like when I call you puppy."</p><p>"Anh," Miles whines, trying to squirm more, but Peter's forearm is pressing down on his thigh as he works Miles's penis and his other arm is wrapped around Miles's upper chest, keeping him from doing more than making little frantic movements against the alpha's now fully hard erection.</p><p>"Puppy," Peter says again, and licks at Miles's earlobe, whispers it directly. <em>"Puppy."</em></p><p>Miles comes, so embarrassingly fast, creaming into his underwear and his sweatpants as Peter laughs at him.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>If you guessed it would be Deadpool, award yourself quadruple points.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Chapter 7</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Content warning: non-graphic childbirth scene.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“How come you haven’t asked me about baby names?”</p><p>Peter, who just turned out the light, flips it back on and squints at Miles. “You wanna talk about it now?”</p><p>“Well I thought you’d ask before now,” says Miles, referring to the fact that tomorrow morning is the scheduled c-section.</p><p>“I didn’t want to try to take things over.”</p><p>“Asking isn’t taking things over,” says Miles, “if we’re dating, and I'm having your pup—”</p><p>“Okay.” Peter runs his hand through his hair. “Do you have a name picked out?”</p><p>“I haven’t really… the name I’m thinking of, I dunno what you’ll think of it.”</p><p>“Shoot.”</p><p>“Well, um, first, since we’re not married, I was thinking the kid can have my surname, maybe… that’s, um, that’s what my parents did, cause they didn’t get married until I was two or three. Plus, like… I’m the only Morales I’ve got over here, so, I dunno, I just thought it would be nice if my pup was one too.”</p><p>“Sure,” Peter says, and he doesn’t look surprised or upset or disappointed, although he’s hard to read because he already looked tired when they started talking. “That makes sense, when you’ve had to leave behind everything.”</p><p>“But, um, that doesn’t mean I don’t want him to be connected to you too, and… and also, also in honour of the other Peter Parker, the one in my world, I was thinking about calling him Parker, cause that’s a name too, right? I mean like, people use it as a first name.”</p><p>That does surprise Peter. He looks down at Miles’s bump. “Parker Morales. Parker Morales…” He looks back up at Miles’s face, and he smiles. “I think I like it. Especially because… yeah. I don’t want to forget about that other me, either.”</p><p>Miles grins, then pauses. “Hey, if there was another you in my universe, then… is there another me here?”</p><p>“I looked into it, a little,” Peter says, “a long time ago, when I came back from the Collider, when we were still figuring out the teleporter. I couldn’t find anyone that was definitely you, but there are so many variables… your counterpart in this universe could be older, or younger, or a different sex, gender, dynamic… or for whatever reason, it’s possible that you don’t have a counterpart in my universe. There’s no simple, obvious Miles Morales born anywhere in this New York City in the last fifty years. I checked Miles Davis too, since that’s your dad’s surname, but uh, that was a little more difficult because of the jazz player.” A beat. “You don’t think you might be an alternate universe version of a jazz musician, do you?”</p><p>“We have Miles Davis in my universe,” Miles says, “so that’s out.”</p><p>*</p><p>Peter scents him thoroughly before they prep him for surgery, cleaning his abdomen and the site for the epidural. Peter gets to be in the operating room with him, too.</p><p>“You’re grabbing onto my hand so tight,” Miles complains, but more as a joke. “You know you’re supposed to be holding it to support me, not to keep yourself standing, right.”</p><p>“Sorry.” Peter relaxes his hold so much he’s barely holding it at all. “You’re doing great.”</p><p>“They haven’t done anything yet.”</p><p>“You’re still doing great.” Peter tightens his grip a little bit. “Everybody’s doing great. Yep.”</p><p>Miles’s other hand gets a little device where he can push a button to add more anesthetic.</p><p>“We’re gonna hope for the best and plan for the worst,” the anesthetist says. “Unless I take it away from you, feel free to push it anytime you feel something that feels like actual pain. You should still be able to feel some sensation like tugging or pressure even when fully anesthetized, but if it starts to become painful, hit it. If you’re using too much and the risks of the analgesics become an issue, I may have to take it away from you. Please refrain from using your super strength on me if I have to take your pain relief away.”</p><p>“I know it’s your job, man,” says Miles.</p><p>But it turns out not to be an issue.</p><p>At 8:04am on April 19th, Parker Morales gets pulled into the world to take his first breath. Peter is nearly breaking the bones in Miles’s hand again as he stares.</p><p>“Do you want to cut the cord?” someone asks Peter.</p><p>“Can I?!” Peter says to Miles, so excited that Miles wants to laugh but is nervous about the prospect of doing so with his stomach cut open.</p><p>“Yeah, sure. Pretty sure if you can handle a goober you can cut a cord.”</p><p>Alphas always get to hold pups first, so they can scent them, but Miles doesn’t feel jealous at all as he watches Peter, sitting shirtless with the pup in the corner of the room, while the surgeons finish sewing him back together.</p><p>Peter is so happy. It’s just pure, pure happiness, in this moment. He’s not thinking about anything else but that he’s got a healthy pup in his arms, Miles can tell.</p><p>It makes everything else seem worth it.</p><p>*</p><p>When Miles gets to the front of the line at the post office in Atlanta, the worker gives him a strange look for a moment before smiling.</p><p>“How can I help you?” she says.</p><p>“Um, I want to mail these,” he says, putting down a bunch of pictures, “but I don’t know what envelope is right, so they don’t get bent, or how much it is to mail it.”</p><p>She takes the pictures and coos, which he can’t blame her for, because the top one is a picture of Parker in Spider-Man footie pajamas complete with a little knit hat, and he <em>does</em> look like the cutest baby ever. “Well isn’t this darling! Can I have a quick look, honey? Since it’s slow. I just love newborns.”</p><p>“Sure,” he says, unable to be mad that someone thinks Parker is adorable.</p><p>The postal worker grabs a stiff mailer and hands it to him with a pen. “You just fill out the address on here while I look, and then I can weigh it and find out the cost. You mailing it within Georgia, honey?”</p><p>Miles clicks the pen. “Nah, to New York.”</p><p>“Still shouldn’t be too expensive,” the worker says, flipping over another picture. “Ohhhh, this one is of the two of you together!” She smiles at him. “You and your alpha must be very happy to have such a healthy pup.”</p><p>“Uh, no, no no no,” laughs Miles, “he’s my nephew, my nephew. I’m just sending the pictures to my mom and dad since they couldn’t come down to Georgia while my sister has her baby.”</p><p>“Well aren’t you a good brother,” says the postal worker. “New parents need all the help they can get, don’t they?”</p><p>“Yeah,” says Miles, hoping that Peter is doing ok, his first time alone with Parker. He reaches for the pictures since he’s finished writing the address, and the postal worker lets him take them and put them into the mailer.</p><p>“Okay,” she says, looking down at the address, “let me just take this in the back and get it weighed, and then I’ll come back to ring you up. Don't go anywhere, honey.”</p><p>She disappears, and Miles gets that niggling weird feeling again, because he’s pretty sure he can see the scales they use for letters right in front of them. He goes on tiptoes to try to see any further through the door she disappeared through, rocks back on his heels, and his gaze shifts restlessly over the inside of the post office and its many official posters advertising stuff like “the new American Summer series of forever stamps” and information on renting a PO Box and then freezes, because there’s a big poster with MISSING KIDS at the top.</p><p>ENDANGERED RUNAWAY<br/>
MORALES, MILES, BORN 09/11/03<br/>
AGE NOW: 17<br/>
SEX: MALE     DYNAMIC: OMEGA<br/>
HAIR: BLACK    EYES: BROWN<br/>
HEIGHT: 5’6” (167cm)     WEIGHT: 150lbs (68kg) (PREGNANT)<br/>
MISSING SINCE: FEBRUARY 2021     LAST SEEN: BROOKLYN, NEW YORK<br/>
BELIEVED LURED BY UNKNOWN ALPHA WHO SIRED HIS UNBORN PUP, DUE DATE MAY 2021. LAST MADE CONTACT VIA PHONE CALL FROM OKLAHOMA FEBRUARY 2021, MAY CROSS STATE LINES AGAIN.</p><p>And there’s his high school ID photograph again. Miles never expected that thing to get so much play.</p><p>There are a few other unfortunate missing kids on the big poster and at the bottom, “Don’t hesitate, call!”</p><p>That’s 100% what the postal worker is doing, especially when she saw that he was sending photos of a newborn infant to a Rio <em>Morales </em>in <em>Brooklyn</em>.</p><p>Miles drops all the cash he brought with him on the counter and books it.</p><p>*</p><p>“Are you still in Georgia?” is the first thing his dad says when he calls a week later from San Diego, and Miles sighs.</p><p>“No, dad,” he says. “You’re really making them waste time that they could use to find other kids. I’m calling from California but I am not going to be in California anymore as soon as I hang up.”</p><p>“What does he do? What does he do that he can move you so much?”</p><p>It really must be driving his dad crazy, not just as a father, but as a detective. Miles knows that other police departments go all in when the victim is a police officer or relative of one. But every single lead would have gone nowhere. “Dad. I called because I wanted to know if you and mami got the pictures. Since, uh, I couldn’t really mail them, exactly. I left the money at the counter, but I don’t know if she mailed it, or… or if she gave it to the police.”</p><p>A short silence.</p><p>“Yeah, we got ‘em,” his dad says gruffly. “Thanks. I saw you wrote ‘Parker, April 19th, 7lbs 1oz’ on the back of one of ‘em. He… the pup looks real healthy. That’s good.”</p><p>“He is,” says Miles. “He came a little early but he’s really healthy.”</p><p>“Parker’s his first name?”</p><p>“Yeah.”</p><p>“After Spider-Man.” His dad doesn’t even say it as a question.</p><p>“Yeah,” says Miles, thinking of two men, very similar but very different. “Peter Parker’s my hero.”</p><p>“Your mom wants to talk to you.”</p><p>Chatting with his mother is much easier, because she actually does chat with him about baby stuff, unlike his dad who can’t leave it alone trying to trick leads out of Miles.</p><p>But then his mom hits him straight up.</p><p><em>“Mijo,”</em> she says, and God, Miles already has a lump in his throat at just that word, “is your alpha really kind to you? He’s not hurting you? <em>Usa el español si él no lo entiende.”</em></p><p><em>“Él no está aquí,</em>but he’s not hurting me at all. <em>Lo juro, mami.”</em> Miles swallows, but he can’t get the lump to go away. <em>“Estoy muy feliz con mi alfa.”</em></p><p>“Now that you’re a parent, you understand, right?” his mother says, and oh, Miles does understand.</p><p>“I do, mami,” he chokes out. “I wish it didn’t have to be like this. <em>Lo siento mucho por eso.”</em></p><p>“It doesn’t have to be like this,” she pleads, “I’m sure we can find—”</p><p>“Hey,” Miles hears his dad say, “don’t tell him we’re gonna let that rapist off the hook.”</p><p>“I don’t care!” his mother hisses. “I told you I don’t care! I just want Miles back!”</p><p>“We’re gonna get him back, and we’re gonna make that bastard pay.”</p><p>“I gotta go mami,” Miles says because he can’t take it anymore. “I love you both.”</p><p>“Don’t hang—” his mother says but Miles is already hanging up.</p><p>*</p><p>Parker is basically bald when he’s first born, but little wisps of black curls start to come in quickly. When he sleeps, he’s always got his eyes shut tight and his mouth in a frown like he’s really gotta concentrate on being unconscious. When he’s awake, he opens his eyes really big, and Peter says his eyes are just like Miles’s.</p><p>He sleeps in a crib on Miles's side of their bed. The apartment is crowded with baby stuff, now; it was amazing how many people wanted to send gifts to Spider-Man's kid. Peter's already talking about how they need to move to a two bedroom, or even get a house, maybe in the same neighbourhood in Queens where Peter grew up.</p><p>Miles thinks about his universe's Aunt May and wonders if she still has that spider gear down below her shed, if she knows that he's gone missing. She must, right? If he was on a poster in Atlanta, it must have gotten a ton of attention in New York.</p><p>
  <em>Endangered runaway.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"Our family doesn't run away from things, Miles."</em>
</p><p>"Something wrong?" Peter says, and Miles jerks out of his brooding. They're walking through the park together—or wait, is that a date? Does that count as a date? Do you have to hold hands, for it to be a date? Miles has had his hands in his pockets this whole time, should they be holding hands? </p><p>"Hello in there," Peter says, and Miles realizes he <em>still</em> hasn't responded to the first question.</p><p>"Sorry," he says, taking his hands out of his pockets and reaching one for Peter's. "G-word stuff."</p><p>"Ah." Peter takes his hand and looks down at his chest, where Parker is strapped into a carrier, fast asleep. They'd gone on this walk in the first place because Parker was crying and wouldn't settle. "I don't know if I'm any good at that stuff, but do you wanna talk about it?"</p><p>Peter's hand feels so secure. "I was just... sometimes I feel guilty because I went through that whole, y'know, thing, learning that I couldn't run away, great responsibility blah blah, and now here I am, I've run away, probably for good, and my universe doesn't have <em>any</em> heroes now..."</p><p>"That's not how I remember it."</p><p>"Huh?" says Miles, not following.</p><p>"Wanting to run away was never your problem," Peter says, "it's mine. You didn't hesitate from the start, to try to take over from the other me. You wouldn't leave me alone, trying to get my help, even when I disappointed you over and over. You were so stubborn and determined to keep your promise to save the world, even when it was so dangerous and you couldn't control your powers... you know, when I got <em>my</em> powers, I had already gotten pretty good with them by the first time I had a run-in with any kind of crime. <em>My</em> first opportunity to stop a crime was just a thug with no powers, I could have done it with just one flick of my wrist, but..." Peter shakes his head. "Well, you know the story. I didn't."</p><p>Miles doesn't know what to say.</p><p>"So me and the g-word, we go way back," Peter says, tilting his head up and looking at the trees. "My initial instinct is still always to try to avoid responsibility. I mean, you remember how I was with you, how my first reaction to seeing a terrified kid begging for my help was to swipe the goober and leave. If you hadn't been so stubborn, your universe would have been toast. Run away? You've always run <em>towards</em> responsibility. Once you make a commitment, that's it. And you made a commitment to Parker. All by yourself, when I was still trying to pretend nothing happened, when you couldn't tell anybody the truth and it was a stupid idea for a thousand reasons, you made a commitment to have Parker. And that's so like you." Peter gives him a sideways smirk. "It's admirable. Frustrating as all hell, but really admirable."</p><p>Miles doesn't know what to say to that, either, so he pretends the scenery to their right is really fascinating. It's not the way he thinks about how he's done. When he remembers everything about getting bitten and the Collider, what he remembers most is being terrified, feeling incompetent, and wanting help. He remembers feeling like he was too stupid and weak to figure out, even with tons of help, the things that Peter Parker—all of them—and the other Spider-People had figured out on their own. He still cringes when he remembers how he wasn't smart enough to put the USB stick in a safe place while he tried, and failed, to figure out how to use his powers. Then there was the idiocy of trying to lug both the computer and the monitor until Peter pointed out they didn't need the monitor. Miles was pretty sure he was the dumbest Spider-Person in any universe, not excluding Peter Porker, who wasn't even a <em>person.</em></p><p>"There's just one thing I don't get. All the bad and cowardly things I've done have always rebounded on me. It didn't seem to matter how much good stuff I did, it was never enough to make up for my failures. But now... now the worst thing I <em>ever</em> did, the most inexcusable failure... has ended up with me getting to keep you and Parker. A whole bunch of people who never did anything wrong are doing the suffering instead. And I can't even be... the g-word... because that wouldn't be fair to you or Parker. So I'm supposed to just... let myself be happy?" Peter laughs, in a confused way. "Figure that one out, because I can't."</p><p>"I don't think you're a coward," Miles says. "Yeah, you were kinda grumpy at first—" Peter snorts. "—but right from the beginning you were always trying to protect me. You even wanted to stay behind so I wouldn't be in danger, even though you knew that meant you would glitch to death."</p><p>"Yeah but I had accepted a long time ago that I would go out that kind of way, and it's not like I had my life ahead of me anymore. Don't give me any credit for that."</p><p>Miles lifts up the hand he's holding, puts it palm side up, mimes putting something into it, and folds the hand closed.</p><p>"What the heck?" Peter says, as Miles walks backwards in front of him, facing him.</p><p>"I just gave you credit," Miles says, folding his arms behind his head.</p><p>"Miles..." Peter laughs, despite himself. "That was dumb."</p><p>"You're laughing!"</p><p>"It's still dumb. And you're gonna trip trying to walk like that."</p><p>Miles sticks out his tongue, but goes back to his previous position and lets Peter take his hand.</p><p>"There, I gave you the credit back."</p><p>Miles swings their joined hands lightly. "Seems like as long as I don't let go, then it's joint credit."</p><p>Peter laughs again. "So, what, you're gonna just not let go of me for the rest of my life?"</p><p>"Yep," Miles says cheerfully.</p><p>Peter smiles like he's trying not to. The sun is shining and his pup is adorable and Miles thinks everything might actually be okay.</p><p>"You know, when you're my age, I'll be in my sixties."</p><p>Miles snorts. "So we'll both be old, so what."</p><p>"That's... hey, forty's not that old."</p><p>"Then there's no problem!"</p><p>"Jesus," says Peter, but his grip on Miles's hand is firm.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I thiiiiiink this is the end. I might come back and do an epilogue, or a separate piece. I have some little extra interactions I already have written down that I'd love to be able to share.</p><p>Your (nice) comments are appreciated! Note that this is very personal, self-indulgent cope fic so I am not looking for "constructive criticism" of any kind. Thank you for understanding.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Chapter 8</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Is this the epilogue? Or is this the, like, final final chapter, and maybe there's gonna be an epilogue later? Or something else?! It's as confusing as actual comics.</p><p>Content warning: mild BDSM with safeword using a paddle featuring very gentle dom Peter, aftercare included.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="">"You drive like an old man," Miles complains mildly and bites into a beef stick they bought at the last gas station.</p><p>"I do not," Peter says testily. "People just don't know how to drive in Massachusetts. You know what they call them? Massholes."</p><p>"You're going the speed limit. Pretty sure even the other old men are passing us."</p><p>"It's called the speed <em>limit</em> because it's the <em>limit,"</em> says Peter. They're driving in a rented SUV, heading for their first ever family summer vacation in New Hampshire. Well, it's half a family vacation, half an opportunity for Miles to put his Spider-Man costume back on and get a feel for everything again, with the privacy of being on a literal private island that they're borrowing from a friend of Peter's, Tony Stark, who's both a hero and a billionaire.</p><p>That had been another unsettling, weird reminder that they were in an alternate universe. In <em>his</em> universe, Tony Stark had been a billionaire too, but a notorious one who died ignominiously while on a trip to some hellhole despotic country to sell more weapons, part of yet another stupid war that Miles had needed to learn about for modern world history class.</p><p>"Even my dad doesn't drive the speed limit on the highway." Miles says as he reaches for the Coca-Cola he has in the cup holder. It's almost as good as the Koka-Soda from his own dimension. "Even my <em>abuela—"</em></p><p>"We'll still get there in plenty of time," Peter says, checking his mirrors.</p><p>"Yeah but the longer we're driving, the more time we have to spend with Parker in the car seat, and when he wakes up he's gonna start screaming again."</p><p>Peter grunts, but Miles sees the speedometer tick up a little.</p><p>*</p><p>The big challenge of their month in New Hampshire is not Miles relearning how to be Spider-Man—that really had turned out to be just like getting back on a bike—but food, because neither Peter nor Miles really know how to cook.</p><p>In Brooklyn, provided you have money, that's not a problem, because even if you're trying to "eat clean" like Peter's <em>still</em> insisting he's doing, the options for take-out, delivery, and meal services are endless. But unless they wanted to bring a private chef with them—which they both really didn't—that stuff didn't really exist up here.</p><p>"'How hard can it be to cook,' he said," Miles snickers, as Peter comes back from dumping some inedible mess into the compost.</p><p>"Did you know corn flakes were originally a health food?" Peter says, grabbing a box. "It's true."</p><p>"Bab bab bab," says Parker, pushing himself up on his elbows on the blanket.</p><p>"I thought carbs were the devil to you," Miles says as Parker rolls over onto his back, and then rolls over again onto his front to reach out for the rattle Miles is holding. "Here you go Parks, good job."</p><p>"Maybe Kelloggs is right and keto is wrong," Peter muses, pouring himself a bowl. "I mean, this damn flab <em>still</em> isn't going away, so..."</p><p>"I like your belly the way it is," Miles says. "It's a perfect pillow. Parker likes it too, doncha?"</p><p>Parker works his teething gums over the silicone handle of the rattle with satisfaction. </p><p>*</p><p>They celebrate Miles's "20th" (actually 18th) birthday the only way possible to do so with a baby who isn't yet five months old: an evening spent trying to get Parker to fall asleep and stay asleep in his own room in their new house in Queens, a concept that the pup has not yet accepted.</p><p>Peter has the brilliant idea of webbing the crib by the corners to the ceiling, turning the whole thing into a giant cradle, which finally does the trick of making Parker settle. They both hold their breaths when Miles stops pushing the crib-cradle and lets its momentum slowly dissipate. Parker still doesn't stir. Neither of them breathe until they've safely closed the nursery door behind them.</p><p>"Phewwwww," says Miles. "Well. Whatcha wanna do now?"</p><p>"That's my line," says Peter. "It's your birthday. You wanna have your cake first?"</p><p>Peter has to sing Happy Birthday to him as a solo, which is just the best, because he's so embarrassed about it. The candlelight plays off the red on his cheekbones before Miles blows out a couple of tealights because neither of them thought to buy actual birthday candles.</p><p>They eat the cake. It's just a little six inch one, dark chocolate with strawberries, that Miles picked out himself from the cooler of the local supermarket. "Really committing to the colour scheme, huh," Peter said when he saw it.</p><p>"Gotta think about my brand, man," Miles says. "Maybe someday when I get famous as a hero they'll make an ice cream bar of my head, chocolate and strawberry. It'll blow your popsicle out of the water."</p><p>"Don't remind me about that thing." Peter shudders. "Who the hell thought it was a good idea to put gumballs in something frozen. I've probably indirectly caused so many kids to break their teeth."</p><p>*</p><p>"Well, birthday boy," Peter says in a tone that has Miles starting to slick up already, "ready for your present?"</p><p>Miles swallows. "Sure, I love unwrapping presents."</p><p>Peter grabs the baby monitor. "It's in our room."</p><p>Miles gets even slicker when Peter closes the door and says they should undress, but then he gets a pang of disappointment as Peter starts talking about the weather, of all things, and opening drawers, like they're just gonna put on pajamas and go to <em>sleep.</em> Even when Miles is totally naked, Peter doesn’t make a move to touch him. If, after all that anticipation, Peter's present to him is a set of pajamas...</p><p>"...forecast, but the barometer's falling. Look out the window, do you see any dark clouds?"</p><p>Miles turns from staring with disbelief at Peter's face to looking at the window, which only shows cracks through the blinds anyway. "Peter, it's already dark ou—"</p><p>
  <em>Whap.</em>
</p><p>"I thought I taught you to watch the hands, not the mouth," Peter says, his breath hot on the back of Miles's neck. Miles seizes up in shock and arousal as Peter wraps one arm around him while the other slowly, lazily twirls in front of Miles’s eyes the large wooden paddle with black leather wrapping that apparently had just lightly struck him across his bare ass. <em>How</em> had Peter managed to take that thing out, get it ready, and hit him without Miles noticing <em>at all,</em> not to mention not triggering his spider sense...</p><p>
  <em>Oh. Of course. It didn't ping my spider sense because Peter doesn't really want to hurt me. Peter would never hurt me.</em>
</p><p>Miles is feeling so warm and loved and flustered in Peter's arms at this realization that he ends up wanting to make a joke, to tease Peter back, and picks totally the wrong one. "You know I was fourteen when you said that to me."</p><p>Peter instantly lets go, which was not what Miles wanted. "Oh, fuck, now you made it gross."</p><p>"Sorry, I'm sorry," Miles says quickly, "I just thought it was funny!"</p><p>"It's <em>not</em> funny. Not to me. That part... that part isn't funny."</p><p>Yeah, the mood's definitely not funny now. When Miles turns around, that familiar guilt is in Peter's eyes again, and Miles wonders if they'll ever really be free of it. Peter's holding the paddle and looking at it like a murderer with a bloody knife who has ten cops pointing guns at him.</p><p>"You know, before my heat, I never felt... I didn't think... you were never, like, <em>grooming</em> me or anything—"</p><p>"I didn't see you that way back then," Peter says, "but I shouldn't have seen you that way when you were sixteen, either. Whether you were in heat or not. Fuck, you're only barely legal <em>today</em>, I still shouldn’t—"</p><p>"Peter," Miles interrupts, taking a firm hold of Peter's face, a flat palm against each side, forcing him to look him in the eyes, "don't do this on my birthday. Okay? No g-word, not today."</p><p>Peter's sorrowful brown eyes stare back at his stubborn ones, and he sighs, and the eyes crinkle into a weary smile. "Right. No g-word." He taps the paddle gently against Miles's chest. "Unless you want to make that the safeword. Nothing would break the mood faster, right?"</p><p>"Safeword, right," says Miles, excited and nervous, and releases Peter's face. "Um... I really like this as a present. I really, <em>really</em> do."</p><p>Peter chuckles. "I could hardly believe it the first time I saw you leave your browser open to that website. Then you <em>kept</em> doing it. So I bought this. I <em>almost</em> didn't go through with it, because about a week ago you stopped? Did you give up because you thought I wasn't getting the hint?"</p><p>"No, I knew you would get the hint," Miles says, embarrassed, "I just thought, since you hadn't said anything, that you didn't want to."</p><p>"I don't know about whether I <em>want</em> to, exactly," says Peter, and he's looking at the paddle again, but his gaze is more measured, calculating. "I've never done any kind of, uh, impact play before. Really, I haven't done any kind of BDSM stuff with anybody, except web-bondage, because c'mon. That's just a given."</p><p>How natural it was to web Peter's hands down and close his mouth during the jellyfish-heat-madness flits into Miles's mind, but he's already come close to wrecking this once and he's not gonna do it again. "Oh? So you're just... gonna try it because I wanted to?" That's not bad, honestly. That's kind of sweet in itself.</p><p>"Not exactly... it's more... tying someone up with webs is predictable, I do it all the time, I know it's not gonna hurt anybody. Before you, all the people I've had sex with, none of them had powers. I... uh..."</p><p>While Peter trails off, still looking at the paddle, Miles is trying very hard not to be jealous of <em>"all</em> the people" Peter had sex with before him, a concept that he had naively not even considered, other than the obvious MJ, who was more than jealousy-inducing enough.</p><p>"I maybe like to give it rough more than I should," Peter says very quietly, and <em>that</em> certainly snaps Miles out of thinking about <em>anything</em>  other than <em>getting</em> it rough from Peter. "I was always nervous about my strength hurting someone as it was. When I was younger, uh, sometimes I did do more than I intended, accidentally. No lasting damage, fortunately. To add in anything more deliberate... I never let myself even consider it."</p><p>"But I do have superpowers," Miles says, totally unnecessarily, since they both know it, but Miles is anxious to draw a big highlighting circle around this one area where he is undeniably a better lover for Peter than <em>"all</em> the people" Peter has had before. "I can take anything you give me, Peter."</p><p>The paddle’s under his chin, then, tipping it up a little. Miles isn’t as short as he was when they first met, but Peter’s still got a height advantage over him, especially when he actually stands up straight, like he’s doing now.</p><p>“Can you, puppy?”</p><p>“Yes.”</p><p>Peter reaches with his other hand and grips Miles at the nape, not enough to make him go totally boneless, but enough to remind him that Peter could. “Yes, what?”</p><p>“Yes... sir?”</p><p>Peter scruffs Miles onto the bed, makes him flop on his belly, loose and helpless. “Wrong.”</p><p><em>Smack.</em> To the top of the right thigh, not hard. It’s the wrong place, Miles thinks dazedly, he wants to be hit higher...</p><p>Another smack, to his bottom this time, and it’s the right place, but it isn’t hard enough. “Yes, what? Speak, puppy.”</p><p>“Yes, Alpha,” Miles moans, and gets rewarded with Peter putting his hand to that recently smacked ass, caressing it lovingly.</p><p>“That’s right, omega,” Peter croons, and he moves his fingers towards Miles’s crack, starts to play with the slick that’s already dribbling out, drawing lines and streaks with it over Miles’s butt and thigh. “I’m only <em>Alpha </em>to you right now, puppy. Your alpha.”</p><p>God does that sound good. “Yes, Alpha!”</p><p>“Such a naughty puppy you are... smell how dirty you’ve gotten my fingers.” The bed under Miles’s left hip dips as Peter kneels next to him, shoving his hand under Miles’s face.</p><p>Miles immediately opens his mouth and takes Peter’s fingers in, suckles them, laves them with his tongue, and Peter lets him for a moment, but then the paddle comes down on his ass again, the hardest yet.</p><p>But it’s still not hard enough.</p><p>“Did Alpha say you could do that?” Peter says, his tone aloof, digging his fingers deeper into Miles’s mouth, making him gag a little on them before pulling his hand away and wiping Miles’s spit off on his own back, a little cool sticky patch between his shoulder blades.</p><p>“No, Alpha. I’m sorry, Alpha. I just wanted—”</p><p>“Oh, I know what you <em>wanted.” </em>Peter’s voice is dark. “But what you <em>need</em> is discipline. Put that ass in the air for Alpha.”</p><p>Miles gets up on his knees quickly.</p><p>“Higher.”</p><p>Miles tries to lift his butt higher.</p><p>“Higher.”</p><p>Miles pushes way up on his arms and legs so that he’s in a downward dog position, his butt as high as he can get it.</p><p>Peter clicks his tongue. “Now that’s just silly. C’mon now, puppy. You really need Alpha to put his hands on you and show you?”</p><p>It makes it sound so bad and so good at the same time. “Yes, please, Alpha.”</p><p>Peter sets the paddle down at the head of the bed, right in Miles’s line of vision. His touch is rough and impatient, pushing Miles’s knees down and heels up until he’s basically in a four point crouch at a starter’s block. Miles can hold it, but it’s not a very stable position in general, especially not on a soft mattress.</p><p>“There we go,” Peter says, and Miles watches him pick up the paddle. “You can hold that position for Alpha, right puppy?”</p><p>“Yes, Alpha.”</p><p>“Oh, you can? Let’s just check that.”</p><p>
  <em>Smack.</em>
</p><p>Oh, now <em>that </em>was hard. Miles’s butt is stinging as he hurriedly raises himself back into the crouch from being knocked forward onto his knees.</p><p>“You sure you can hold that position? You couldn’t even keep it for the first one.” The alpha’s voice sounds skeptical, not concerned.</p><p>“I will, I can Alpha, please—”</p><p>Another smack, just as hard as the first, but this time Miles manages to brace against it.</p><p>“Good,” Alpha praises, and Miles could preen under it. “That makes one. Do you think we can get to ten?”</p><p>“Yes, Alpha, I’ll be good for you,” Miles promises, and lets out an excited little gasp as the paddle smacks into him again.</p><p>“Two.”</p><p>They make it to seven before Miles wobbles and drops down to one knee from a blow. He quickly gets back into position, but Peter counts ‘one’ with his next blow, and Miles lets out a soft whine.</p><p>“Excuse me?” Peter says.</p><p>“Nothing, it’s nothing, I’m sorry, Alpha, I’m not complaining, it’s not you, I’m just disappointed and—”</p><p><em>Smack.</em> “Two. Just focus on getting it right.”</p><p>Peter isn’t even hitting all that hard, but Miles fails again on five, and the next time he gets to seven again before he buckles. This time he doesn’t immediately get back in position. Not only his butt, but his thigh muscles and his feet and even his arms are complaining bitterly about holding such an uncomfortable position for so long. He whimpers.</p><p>He can’t do it. Such a low number and he can’t do it at all. Miles <em>really</em> feels humiliated.</p><p>“Oh, baby,” Peter says, and Miles chokes back a sob, pushes his face into the sheets. “It’s okay, puppy, really, if you can’t do it. You just need to tell Alpha. Can you do that for me?”</p><p>“I c-can’t—” he hiccups and sniffles, he feels pathetic. “I’m sorry, Alpha, I tried, I can’t do it, I’m n-not good—”</p><p><em>“Puppy,”</em> Peter interrupts him. “You were so, so good, baby.” He lays his hands very lightly on Miles’s sore bottom, smooths out his hands to his hips and tugs up gently, supporting all of Miles’s weight in his strong hands as he pulls Miles where he wants him, slots his hard penis between Miles’s ass cheeks and slicks it up, sliding back and forth, and Miles moans through his tears as the head of Peter’s penis bumps into his balls gently. “Such a good omega for Alpha, doing just what I asked.”</p><p>Half of Miles wants to protest that he’s <em>not</em> good, that he <em>didn’t</em> do what Peter asked, he <em>couldn’t,</em> but the other half just wants Peter’s penis inside him and that half wins easily.</p><p>Peter lets go with one hand but he has no problem keeping Miles exactly where he wants him with the other. Gently, so softly, he pulls Miles’s cheek just a little, and Miles feels the air hitting him where he’s hottest and wettest. “Oh, just look at that. You’re <em>so</em> wet, puppy, it’s dripping onto my cock, I can see it... is that all for me?”</p><p>“Yes, Alpha, only you, only ever you, Alpha.”</p><p>A finger slides into him, two, three. It’s so good, it’s not enough.</p><p>“That’s it, open up for me,” Peter murmurs, and the head of the alpha’s cock pushes against his rim, forces his asshole open even wider, makes Miles take it all the way until Peter’s pressing against his sore bottom. “Look at that, <em>look</em> at that. God, you’re beautiful.”</p><p>It hurts and it hurts more when Peter starts to move, making sure his hips smack hard with every stroke of his big penis into Miles’s asshole. Miles whines and he whimpers and he clutches at the sheets under him and then he’s coming, already he’s coming, it hurts and it feels <em>incredible</em> and he wants it to stop and never end.</p><p>“Perfect,” groans Peter, “Oh, you’re perfect for me, Miles.”</p><p>“Alpha,” whimpers Miles.</p><p>“Be as loud as you want, baby. Call me Peter, if you want.”</p><p><em>“Peter,”</em> Miles immediately seizes on this permission. “Peter, Peter, I love you, Peter, feels so good—”</p><p>Peter’s thrusts speed up. It’s pain-pleasure from the impact against his tender flesh and pleasure-pain from being stretched open and bullied deep inside, relentless torment when he’s just come, and Peter’s gonna force him to come again.</p><p>“Oh, baby, I’m already so close,” Peter moans. “It’s like your little pussy was just made to take my cock.”</p><p>“I-I’m close, ah, I’m c-close too!”</p><p>“Again?” Peter snarls. “Fuck, you’re gonna come again already? Then do it on my knot, puppy, <em>come now.”</em></p><p>He says those last two words in command, and Miles’s body obeys instantly, coming and milking out Peter’s creamy load inside him until Peter’s knot brutally plugs him up, keeps it all in. A hand reaches up to Miles’s nape and rests there, ready to scruff him if he freaks out, but Miles breathes in and out and it isn’t necessary, even if he whimpers a little more than usual.</p><p>When Peter’s knot goes down, he makes Miles drink water. They take a bath together in the big whirlpool tub in the master bedroom’s bathroom, the one that made Peter say, “Yep, this is the house, we’re buying this” before they had even seen the basement or the yard. Miles sits in Peter’s lap so the jets aren’t hitting his skin directly.</p><p>“You did so good, Miles.” Peter nuzzles his neck. “You were amazing. I love you. Just relax, I got you.”</p><p>“You were good too,” Miles yawns. “Thank you for the present.”</p><p>“Felt more like a gift for me,” Peter says. “Everything with you is.”</p><p>“Then gimme another present tomorrow,” Miles says, and Peter laughs.</p><p>*</p><p>A few days after he turned 18 in his original universe, Miles steadies himself and uses the teleporter, this time to Pittsburgh. It was raining in the other world's Queens, but in this world's Pittsburgh it's a brisk and beautiful autumn day, and Miles exits a store with his new prepaid phone and sits on a park bench looking at the trees.  There's a playground nearby, but it's a schoolday and it's empty except for a mother and her kid, older than Parker, maybe three or so; the pup is ignoring the playground equipment entirely, instead squatting and solemnly poking at the dirt with a stick, while the mother reads a paperback book.</p><p>He’s there to call his parents, but it’s been such a long time that it feels especially daunting. After the close call in Georgia, Miles decided he had to wait until he was eighteen to risk going back to his home dimension. He didn’t like leaving his parents in the dark for over four months, but he just couldn’t risk not being able to go home. At least as an adult, he has a lot more rights.</p><p>Miles brushes off a maple seed that hits his jacket and thinks about picking up armfuls of maple seeds as a kid and throwing them into the air, laughing and watching the little helicopter wings whirl around; or standing under a tree, craning his neck back until he was dizzy just from the position, trying to catch a falling leaf or seed from a tree at the park.</p><p>He looks at the other trees and tries to identify them—that wiggly alien shape one is oak, right?—but as a procrastination tactic it's not very effective, and he finally dials his dad's number.</p><p>"Hello?" his dad's voice says, anxious or hopeful, hard to tell.</p><p>"Hi dad, it's Miles."</p><p>"Oh thank God, Miles. Don't hang up, hold on, I'm still pulling over."</p><p>It's not like the dad he knows, to pick up before he's fully pulled over. His dad has been <em>graphic</em> about the horrors of crashes caused by drivers on phones, ever since Miles could remember.</p><p>"Hello? Miles? You still there?"</p><p>"Yeah, I'm here, dad. How—" Miles stops himself from asking <em>how are you</em> just in time. "Howwww are the Mets doing?" He winces and puts a hand to his forehead.</p><p>"Haven't been paying attention," his dad says. "Listen... listen Miles, we know, okay? Me and your mom, we found out about Spider-Man."</p><p>Miles almost says <em>you found out I'm Spider-Man?</em> but just in time remembers one time that Spider-Man Noir was telling him about "the oldest tricks in the book," in such a way that it sounded like The Book was definitely an actual, physical book, one which Spider-Man Noir definitely read cover-to-cover until it fell apart.</p><p>
  <em>"Now kid, suppose somebody comes up to you and says, 'I know all about the dingus—'"</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"The what?"</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Peter Porker cut in. "The dingus, kid, the thingamajig, whatever's giving you the business!”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Spider-Man Noir nodded. “So, you may think you’re in for the kiss off, hearing 'I know all about the dingus, the game's up,' but it could be a trick. Never admit you ever heard of a dingus until they drag it out of you by the short hairs."</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"I definitely never heard of a dingus, man."</em>
</p><p>So instead Miles plays it real cool. "Huh?"</p><p>"Ms. Parker invited us to come and see her, Miles, not long after you called about the pictures. At first I thought maybe, the things she was saying, the grief about her nephew had made her crazy, but... then she showed us her shed."</p><p><em>Oh my God,</em> thinks Miles, <em>he knows about the dingus.</em></p><p>"She had that old, too small costume still there, and... Miles, I was angry as hell, but..."</p><p>Another maple seed falls on Miles's knee, and he lets it lie.</p><p>"The past's not important right now," his dad says. "Ms. Parker said she thought you might be in one of the other dimensions. She... she told us about the glitching, Miles."</p><p>"I'm not glitching, dad," Miles says quickly. "It's a long story, but I'm not."</p><p>"So you <em>did</em> go to another dimension."</p><p>Miles takes a deep breath. "Yeah."</p><p>"I know it would have been hard for us to believe, Miles, but why..."</p><p>Miles hears his dad take in a deep breath.</p><p>"No, I said it ain't important right now. Okay. You... can you tell me <em>now,</em> Miles? Who this alpha is? Why you ran?"</p><p>Miles's knee is trembling and it makes the maple seed slip off. "I... I don't know dad."</p><p>"What don't you know?"</p><p>"You're gonna be <em>really</em> mad."</p><p>"Miles, I want you to listen to me, and listen to me good." It's his dad's alpha voice.</p><p>Over the phone, it doesn't have the same nervous system effect, but it's still associated with powerful memories from the past: stuff like his dad yelling at him not to run into the street, to step back from the edge of a pool, or that one scary day when they were having ice cream from a truck in their neighbourhood and they heard gun shots from nearby. His dad commanded, <em>Miles, run home and don't stop for nobody,</em> and Miles ran, he ran even though he was crying, he ran even though his dad was running the other way, towards the sound of gunfire.</p><p>"Your mom and me, we love you so much," he says, and it's weird to hear an alpha voice sound so choked up. "Sure, whatever you're gonna tell me is probably gonna make me mad. I'm already <em>plenty mad</em> about all of this. But there is no way, no way in <em>hell,</em> that there is anything you can tell us that would make us stop wanting to see you. Okay? It's not gonna happen. Especially your mom. And there's no way that it could hurt us more than we been hurting already from not knowing where you are and what you going through."</p><p>"Parker's sire is the Peter Parker from another universe,” Miles forces out in a rush, then takes a deep breath. His dad doesn’t say anything, and Miles goes on, “He was helping me learn to be Spider-Man and... and I lied to him that I was a beta, and then I went into heat..." says Miles, and he can't bring himself to continue. He squeezes his eyes shut, waiting for his dad to scream at him.</p><p>When his dad speaks, it's angry alright. "I see. Okay. I see, Miles. This is a grown alpha we're talking about, right? A grown man."</p><p>"Yes," Miles says in a small voice, not wanting to specify just <em>how</em> grown. His dad is already this angry just thinking that Miles's Peter Parker is 27 or so, like theirs had been.</p><p>"I know we can't undo what he did," his dad says, low and furious, "but an omega heat does <em>not</em> make an alpha completely lose his damn mind. Okay? It doesn't make the <em>alpha</em> forget right from wrong. Any decent alpha would help an omega in heat get to safety, not take advantage of them. Okay? I thought I taught you better—"</p><p>"It wasn't just the heat, dad," Miles interrupts, burning with shame, because now he's got the awful choice of either letting Peter unfairly shoulder <em>all</em> the blame of what happened, or admitting to his dad what <em>he</em> did because of the jellyfish, and blanketing over all of it is the almost suffocating embarrassment of having to talk with his dad about sex in the first place. "There... I don't know if you'll believe me, but I swear I'm telling the truth, there was this jellyfish alien thing and its pollen..." Miles searches his mind for that impressive-sounding scientific way that Peter had described what the jellyfish did, but can't remember it. "It messes with your head. Like a lot, a lot. And I didn't just lie to him about being a beta, I snuck into his apartment and..." He just can't say it. "...surprised him."</p><p>"So what you're saying is you were both intoxicated," his dad says, unimpressed. "Intoxication is still not a defence to statutory <em>rape,</em> Miles."</p><p>"I <em>know,</em> dad, but it's what happened. Do you think it would do me any better to have Parker's sire in jail?"</p><p>"Yes," his dad snaps, "it's what he deserves under the law."</p><p>Miles's stomach is roiling as he tries to figure out what to say. The seconds tick by.</p><p>His dad speaks again, a little subdued this time. "But I guess you knew I'd be like that, huh? I guess that's why you didn't tell us anything. Why you ran."</p><p>"Yeah, but dad, it turned out to be much better for me and Parker, I promise. See, in Peter’s dimension there's other people with superpowers like me, and people <em>know</em> about superpowers. I got to see doctors that know about powers, and that's why I had a c-section, because they said it can be dangerous for people with super strength to give birth naturally. Peter was the first to worry about it, too, he found me the doctors.” Miles wants to point out anything that makes Peter look good. "He's taken <em>great</em> care of me dad, I promise. He's taken responsibility."</p><p>His dad grumbles. "You know I always hated that great responsibility line."</p><p>"Yeah, I know dad."</p><p>A long pause.</p><p>"Wait... so you telling me my grandchild's name is <em>Parker Parker?!"</em></p><p>*</p><p>"My dad is not gonna kill you, Peter," Miles says, in a joking way, but it isn’t really a joke, as they walk with Parker through Miles’s Brooklyn towards his parents’ house.</p><p>“I’m not worried he’s gonna kill me. I’m worried I’m gonna look at him and wish I was dead,” Peter says, his hands in his pockets. He’s dressed in a suit and tie with a wool coat, a lot nicer than the first time he was in this dimension, but he’s ruining the effect with how nervous and guilty he looks. Any jury in either dimension would convict him.</p><p>“Well if looking at him makes you feel like that, then just look at Parker and you’ll remember you’re happy to be alive,” says Miles, and is glad when Peter smiles and relaxes a very small amount.</p><p>“I know, I know. One afternoon sweating bullets is nothing compared to what your parents—”</p><p>“No g-word!”</p><p>“Today is gonna be all g-word. You might as well call it Griday.”</p><p>Peter goes out of his way to honour Miles’s dad as the alpha of the house, hunching his posture with his head bowed, looking at mouths instead of eyes, keeping his mouth shut, not letting his scent out at all. He doesn’t even react when Miles’s dad scents Parker without asking—an overtly hostile challenge.</p><p>Miles, on the other hand, is pissed. “Dad!” he exclaims, grabbing his pup back with so much enraged omega energy that even his dad immediately releases the baby to him. “You can’t just scent somebody’s kid without asking! He’s never even been scented by anybody but Peter before!”</p><p>It’s a tense moment, and Miles’s mother immediately launches herself in to fix it. “I made your favourite, Miles.”</p><p>“Mami, really? But <em>pasteles</em> are so much work, you didn’t have to do that,” Miles says, but his mouth is already watering.</p><p>His mother holds Parker and plays with him at the table, encourages the six-month-old to try little bits of the masa. Peter sits with his head bowed and the back of his neck angled towards Miles’s dad, and only begins eating when Miles’s dad pushes back from the table. It’s <em>really</em> hardcore, super old-fashioned wolf submission, and it’s definitely not mollifying Miles’s dad <em>at all.</em></p><p>“Have you had <em>pasteles</em> before, Peter?” Miles’s mother says.</p><p>“No, ma’am,” Peter says, and Miles’s dad lets out a loud huff. “It’s delicious, thank you very much.”</p><p>That’s the only thing Peter says until Miles says they need to go, because it’s not good for Peter to be in this dimension for very long. In truth, it would take longer than just a few hours to start experiencing the glitching, but the tension is still so thick you could cut it with a knife... no, more like you’d have to hack at it with an axe.</p><p>His father grunts. “Well. Thanks for coming.”</p><p>Only in the absolute loosest sense is this at all directed at Peter, but Peter seizes the opportunity anyway to reply to the house alpha, his body bowed. “Thank you for allowing me in your home, sir. I am so, so sorry about everything that happened. I can’t justify any of it, but I can’t change it, so I’m going to continue to do my best to take responsibility.”</p><p>Miles sees his dad’s nostrils flare, and his mother hurry to grab onto his elbow. “Taking responsibility would have been turning yourself in to the police.”</p><p>“Dad—” says Miles, but Peter just bows lower.</p><p>“Y’all better go now,” his dad says.</p><p>*</p><p>Back in their own dimension, Peter flops on the couch without even loosening his tie.</p><p>“I’m gonna take Parks up to his room and feed him, see if he’ll go down for a nap,” Miles says, and Peter nods.</p><p>When Miles comes back down, Peter’s sitting up with his shoulders bowed and his hands clasped. He took off his tie, at least.</p><p>Miles sits next to him. “Um. Thanks for coming with me.”</p><p>“There’s nothing to thank me for.” Peter’s voice is flat.</p><p>“I thought it went ok,” Miles says. “I mean first time is always the worst. Maybe he’ll mellow out about it someday.” A beat. “You don’t have to go back, if you don’t want.”</p><p>“It shouldn’t be about what <em>I</em> want,” says Peter, lifting his head a little to look at Miles. “What do <em>you</em> want?”</p><p>“I don’t think I can get everything I want,” says Miles. “Nobody can, right? But when you let me be with you... then I got what I want the most. Really.”</p><p>Peter smiles, reluctantly. “I believe you.”</p><p>“C’mere.”</p><p>They make out, slow and leisurely, and Miles deliberately turns himself so that Peter’s lips will skim towards his mating glands.</p><p>“You know what you’re doing to me,” Peter says into his skin.</p><p>“I’m ready for it when you are.”</p><p>Peter’s mouth opens, his teeth tease over the gland, but they don’t break the skin, even as Miles slumps into Peter’s arms, his eyes almost closed with the hypnotic pleasure of it.</p><p>Peter tucks Miles’s head onto his shoulder, breathes in and out deeply before saying, “This time next year. If you still want it this time next year, I’ll mark you.”</p><p>A year sounds like a very long time, but it also sounds worth it, completely worth it. “I love you, Peter.”</p><p>“Love you too, puppy.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Chapter 9</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Me: whew glad Puppy is done<br/>Me to Me: you tagged it mating bites. you gotta write the bite scene.<br/>Me: oh my God I gotta</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
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<p><b>Gwen: </b>so when i said 15 months was a pretty significant age gap</p><p><b>Gwen: </b>did you take that as a challenge</p><p><b>Miles: </b>Heyyyyyyy Gwen... it’s been a while... you’ve heard some stuff, I guess?</p><p><b>Gwen: </b>don’t hey me</p><p><b>Gwen: </b>i heard it from noir</p><p><b>Gwen: </b>he just mentioned it like it was nbd when we were talking about something else</p><p><b>Gwen: </b>apparently in his dimension 17 and 40 is a totally acceptable age gap so that’s gross but whatever</p><p><b>Gwen: </b>not that its my business</p><p><b>Gwen: </b>be gross if you want</p><p><b>Gwen:</b> but i’m gonna be mad at you guys for not telling me yourself for a while</p><p><b>Miles: </b>Do you want baby pictures?</p><p><b>Gwen: </b>ofc i want baby pictures are you kidding</p><p><b>Gwen: </b>depending on how cute they are i may reduce the amount of time i’m mad at you guys</p><p><b>Gwen: </b>also i get to be Aunt Gwen</p><p>*</p><p>“What would Spider-Man be in Spanish?” Peter says.</p><p>Miles rubs his nose. <em>“El Hombre Araña, </em>I guess.”</p><p>“You’d better write that one down,” Peter says, handing over the pencil.</p><p>They’re brainstorming a name for Miles to use, since they’re both going to be working in New York. Spider-Man and Also Other Spider-Man doesn’t seem like that great of an idea, especially because it’s probably inevitable that the press will come up with their own distinguishing name, and it might not be a flattering one. Anything rather than Spider<em>-Boy, </em>when Miles is already older than when Peter debuted as Spider-<em>Man.</em></p><p>“How about a <em>kind </em>of spider,” says Miles, opening Google on his phone. “Like how I called you Hobo-Spider-Man. That was pretty clever.”</p><p>Peter looks like he wants to object about how clever Hobo-Spider-Man was, but Parker, who at ten months old can crawl <em>very </em>fast when he wants to (and he usually wants to) and pull himself up on furniture,  is making another attempt to climb a baby gate.</p><p>So far, Parker hasn’t displayed any spider-powers, but from his genetic make-up, it could happen at any time, and his current fascination with attempting to climb has his parents very nervous.</p><p>“Let’s just leave that alone kiddo,” Peter says, scooping up Parker and then patting his butt. “And let’s change your diaper.”</p><p>When Peter gets back, he sits Parker in his high chair. “How’s it going?”</p><p>“Did you know there are over forty-five thousand species of spider?”</p><p>“That’s a lot of names to go through,” Peter says, clipping a bib around Parker’s neck. “Tarantula’s already been used by a villain, by the way.”</p><p>“Awww,” says Miles, crossing something out. “Well, that still leaves some cool ones. Wolf Spider... Recluses are pretty deadly...”</p><p>“Recluse Spider sounds more like me five years ago,” muses Peter.</p><p>Parker makes the <em>more</em> baby sign impatiently.</p><p>“It’s coming, it’s coming, I gotta cut it up Parks.”</p><p>“Huntsman, that has potential... something called Armed Spiders, apparently...”</p><p>“‘Oh my God, that spider has a gun,’” Peter deadpans, setting a little plate of sliced grapes and hard boiled egg yolks in front of Parker. “There you go Parks, can you sign <em>thank you? Thank you...</em> you’re welcome, Parker.” He sits back down next to Miles.</p><p>“How about... <em>Orbweaver?”</em> Miles says in a dramatic way, spreading his hands. “That one sounds kind of mystical.”</p><p>“Anything sounds mystical if you say it like that,” says Peter, and does jazz hands himself. <em>“Banana Spider.”</em></p><p>Miles cracks up. “Hey, if you’re not going to take this seriously...”</p><p>“But Orbweaver is pretty good, actually,” says Peter. “Write it down, at least.”</p><p>*</p><p>It becomes obvious through recurring incidents ("What do you mean, President Kennedy was assassinated? Don't you mean President Reagan?") that Miles has a lot to learn about this universe's history if he's not going to give himself away as coming from another reality.</p><p>Miles, as a very recent full-time high school student, had just had a lot of the facts of his universe drummed into his brain, whereas Peter had never been super interested in any of the "arts" subjects even when he was in school, and hadn't thought about most of it in years. They could only really discover where their universes differed through trial and error. A lot of times when Miles recited something from <em>his</em> history, Peter would say "that sounds about right" and then they'd later discover that it was totally off. So instead of trying to learn from Peter, Miles hits the local library for history textbooks. Of course, it has blind spots.</p><p>"Don't worry man, I'm sure they just thought I was dumb," Miles says to Peter when they're at some charity event, their first "official" debut as a couple, after Miles caused a flummoxed silence in a little group of VIPs when he said, "Yeah, sounds like when the Notorious B.I.G. almost got killed," in a conversation about a recent shooting.</p><p>"People shouldn't think you're dumb," Peter says, looking irritated. "You're <em>not</em> dumb."</p><p>Miles does little swirls with his index fingers around his head. "Keep 'em guessing. If people underestimate you, that's the advantage."</p><p>Peter snorts, but he says with his eyes a little narrowed, "You <em>know</em> you're not dumb, right?"</p><p>Miles shrugs, wishing Peter didn’t notice so much so often. "I mean, 'not dumb,' that's not exactly saying much. But sure."</p><p>"You're really smart, Miles.”</p><p>Miles laughs. "Not compared to you. Anyway. Sure sucks that Biggie died in this universe. My uncle loved his music. My dad didn't like that he let me listen to it, though."</p><p>Peter looks like he wants to continue arguing about it, but then some other people come up to schmooze and the subject gets dropped.</p><p>For recent superhero history, on the other hand, Peter is the only possible source, since a lot of it is still top-secret. When Peter talks with him about the importance of trying to keep his identity low profile as long as possible, Miles is confused, because he thought one of the few things he <em>did</em> understand about this universe was that people knew who Spider-Man was.</p><p>"It's complicated," says Peter, "there was a war, a civil war, about whether heroes should be allowed to have secret identities. There were good people on both sides."</p><p>"There was a superhero war?!" Miles says, eyes shining.</p><p>"Hey. Miles," Peter says, getting serious in a way that makes Miles feel very young in a bad way, "I know war sounds exciting, but some really awful things happened. People died, lots of people, and not just heroes who knew what they were risking. People who weren't doing anything wrong, people who just were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Even kids..."</p><p>Peter explains the two sides of the Civil War: the pro-public identity and government registration side, and the pro-secret identity and independence side. He's measured and gives each side's argument in their own words, letting none of his own opinion out.</p><p>"So which side were you on?" Miles says.</p><p>"I—" Peter stops. "Actually, I'm curious. What do <em>you</em> think I did?"</p><p>Miles thinks about it a moment. "Did you... avoid taking a side as long as you could because you didn't want to get involved and have to fight against friends on either side? And then finally you joined the government side, because that was, like, the default, so it was, like, the least choice-y choice?"</p><p>Peter stares at him. "Jesus Christ, Miles." He shudders a little.</p><p>"What? What's wrong? Was I that off?"</p><p>"No, you were absolutely spot on. How did you... it took me <em>so long</em> to decide what to do, I agonized over it. How did you get it just like that?"</p><p>Miles says, "I just tried to think about what you would do, I guess? I dunno. I don't know much about this world, still, but I do know you pretty well, I think."</p><p>Peter's still staring at him.</p><p>"You're starting to freak me out a little with the staring contest thing."</p><p>"Sorry. It's just... yikes." Peter rubs his temples. "The mortifying ordeal of being known."</p><p>"The what? Is this another history thing I missed?"</p><p>"It's nothing."</p><p>*</p><p>Not all the tabloids favour Spider-Man.</p><p>“WATCH OUT MISS MUFFET, HE’S TWICE YOUR AGE” screams a headline on the Daily Bugle the Sunday after Miles and Peter get legally married, something Peter had attempted to do discreetly, purely for the legal protections (especially regarding hospital rights), but the Daily Bugle had apparently sniffed out a copy of the marriage license.</p><p>Miles had gone to the library to meet up with Peter and Parker (they were at Toddler Story-Time) and gotten sidetracked in the newspaper area at the sight.</p><p>The inside article was as full of terrible puns and forced references as it was nasty jabs.</p><p><em>“Peter Parker Pumpkin-Eater had a wife and couldn’t keep her,”</em> it began, <em>“but now the bozo better known as Spider-Man has managed to catch a new omega half his age in his web. The forty-one year old Spider-Man may be New York’s most notorious costumed freak, but poor little twenty-year-old omega Miles Morales was too naive to be frightened away when along came a Spider-Man, trying to get in his tuffet.”</em></p><p>Miles’s jaw dropped and he had to reread the line a couple of times. His <em>tuffet?</em></p><p>
  <em>“Forest Hills in Queens now has a spider infestation as the couple has bought a house and is playing at happy family with their son. Even though their little spiderling turned one in April, New York’s laziest ‘hero’ only got around to a legal marriage this past week, and there’s no sign of a spider bite on the omega’s neck.”</em>
</p><p>And they actually had a picture of the back of his head! It sends an awful violated shiver up his spine, the idea of somebody aiming their camera at him for this purpose, to sell a picture speculating about something so private.</p><p>
  <em>“The current Miss Muffet may be enjoying his curds and whey for now, but New York divorce lawyers are no doubt eager to see what happens when Spider-Man climbs up someone else’s spout again.”</em>
</p><p>“I thought you were going to meet us at—ohhhhhh,” Peter says, pushing Parker’s stroller up to Miles and seeing what he’s reading. “Jesus, they put <em>that</em> on the front page? Slow news day.”</p><p>“Can they seriously call me <em>Miss Muffet?! </em>Is that legal?” Miles closes the newspaper and smacks it down. “It’s—that’s omegaphobic, first of all—”</p><p>“Yeah, they have zero shame,” Peter says. “C’mon, let’s go have lunch.”</p><p>“I’m not a <em>little girl,” </em>Miles seethes, gripping the handlebars of Parker’s stroller. “I can’t believe people are still misgendering omega men like it’s a <em>joke</em> in 2022. Why were they so over the top <em>nasty</em> in what they wrote? I thought that article before was mean to MJ, but at least that was all passive-aggressive and indirect. They straight up called you a bozo, Peter!”</p><p>“The <em>Daily Bugle </em>has always had it out for me specifically.” Peter shrugs. “I, uh, I worked for them for a while, actually, back before my identity was public. I made some good bank taking pictures of myself as Spider-Man for them... so when it came out that I <em>was</em> Spider-Man the whole time, Mr. Jameson—the owner—I think he actually gave himself a heart attack, he was so angry...”</p><p>“So that means he’s gotta come after me and Parker too?”</p><p>“What did they say about Parker?” Peter says, in a different tone. The contrast in Peter’s attitude, in a weird way, reassures Miles. Like that Peter expects Miles to be strong enough to shrug off insults and lies, but people messing with their pup is a different story.</p><p>“Nothing bad really. They called him a spiderling.”</p><p>“Oh, that’s kinda cute.” Peter relaxes, and for today, at least, the staff of the <em>Daily Bugle</em> have cheated death.</p><p>*</p><p><em>IT’S ELECTRIC! ORBWEAVER ZAPS TERRORISTS!</em> screams the headline on the Daily Bugle at the newsstand where Miles is buying an overpriced bottle of water because Parker threw his sippy cup out of the stroller somewhere in the last twenty blocks and the summer day is scorching hot. There’s also a blurb: <em>Spider-Man, bug off! Orbweaver is the only arachnid hero we want. Editorial inside.</em></p><p>Miles wrinkles his nose. He doesn’t like that the Daily Bugle <em>loves</em> Orbweaver, because he’s pretty sure it’s just for the opportunity to blast Spider-Man in comparison. Because of the trash paper’s determination to make Orbweaver into Spider-Man’s replacement, everytime he takes questions as Orbweaver from journalists, there’s always some about Peter, which is very awkward.</p><p>“Orbweaver, what do you think about Spider-Man?”</p><p><em>I’m crazy in love with him. </em>“He’s a huge role model to me as a young hero.”</p><p>“Don’t you think Spider-Man should hang up the suit and leave crime-fighting to the new generation?”</p><p><em>Maybe he should, but I’d rather chew glass than tell the Daily Bugle that, you ungrateful assholes. </em>“I’m sure Spider-Man can handle his own decisions.”</p><p>“You want a straw?” says the vendor, jolting Miles out of this recollection of the last time he’d been surrounded by journos outside a police station after dropping off a webbed up criminal.</p><p>“No, if I give him a straw he’ll tip the bottle anyway and pour it all over himself,” Miles says, “but thanks.”</p><p>The vendor chuckles and gives Miles his change. “Good taste on his hat, by the way. Lots of people like this new hero Orbweaver, but I prefer the tried and true heroes myself.”</p><p>Miles laughs awkwardly, looking at Parker’s Spider-Man sunhat. “Well, we can support them both, right?”</p><p>*</p><p>“Hey! Miles! C’mere! I want you to meet somebody.”</p><p>Peter looks really delighted as he calls Miles over, so Miles excuses himself from the boring conversation he was faking interest in at this fancy event to celebrate the new leader of SHIELD, one of those hero-government agencies in this universe, and walks up to Peter with a smile.</p><p>“Flash, this is my partner Miles. Miles, this is Flash, we went to high school together. He used to push me into lockers.”</p><p>Miles shakes the hand of the chagrined Flash, blinking. “Uh-huh?”</p><p>“One time he threw my new bike into the East River. You remember that?” Peter says, still bright and cheerful.</p><p>Flash laughs sheepishly. “Yeah, I was a total shit... Um, Peter—”</p><p>“You were bullied in school?” says Miles, so surprised that he can’t stop himself from interrupting. He vaguely remembers that the Spider-Man <em>comics</em> in his universe featured a bullied teenager who became Spider-Man, but he always assumed that was totally made up, especially when he saw who was behind the mask. Every Peter Parker he had met had been athletic, gorgeous, and charming—not exactly a typical bullying target.</p><p>“Oh, <em>mercilessly,”</em> Peter says, his hand on Flash’s shoulder. “So I give him a little of his own back by making him incredibly uncomfortable at these events. A fun tradition, isn’t it Flash? Hey, do you remember when you threw my glasses into the urinal and then after I fished them out you told everyone that I had Piss Glasses? People called me Piss Glasses right up until graduation, even when I wasn’t wearing glasses anymore.”</p><p>“Yeah... yeah I remember that... um, Peter—”</p><p>“Peter,” says a voice that wipes the gloating smile right off of Peter’s face, “it was twenty years ago.”</p><p>Peter freezes. Miles concentrates on not turning invisible this time as Mary Jane Watson, looking stunning in an evening gown, walks up to them.</p><p>“I was trying to tell you, if you didn’t know,” Flash says, still looking uncomfortable, “Mary-Jane and I reconnected, and we’ve been dating.”</p><p>Peter looks at MJ, and MJ looks at Peter.</p><p>“I’m very happy for you,” Peter says, stilted, but not insincere. Stiffly, he pulls his hand off Flash’s shoulder. “Flash is, uh, he’s a good guy these days. Joking aside.”</p><p>“Thanks, Peter,” MJ says, looking a little bit too professionally calm. “I heard you tied the knot, but no wedding this time?”</p><p>“It’s not the right time... We mostly got married for the benefits for Parker, anyway.”</p><p>“Could I talk to you, Ms. Watson?” Miles blurts. The other three look at him, Flash puzzled, MJ a bit aloof, and Peter apprehensive.</p><p>“I don’t see why not,” MJ says. “Mind if we find a place to sit? These shoes look great but they were a mistake.”</p><p>Peter’s trying to warn him something with his eyes as Miles passes but he can’t figure it out so he decides to worry about it later. They find a bench that’s a little removed from the main bustle.</p><p>“So,” MJ says.</p><p>“I am so, so, so sorry Ms. Watson,” Miles says, and he sees it take MJ completely by surprise. “The things that happened—I’m really sorry. Peter—” Miles swallows, trying to think how to say it. “I’m really happy with Peter, but I’m still so, so sorry, Ms. Watson.”</p><p>“God—don’t call me Ms. Watson, first of all, I already feel old sitting next to you. Call me Mary-Jane, or MJ like Peter does.” She tilts her head, considering him. “You’re different. Different than I expected, I mean.”</p><p>Miles gives her a somewhat timid, apologetic smile.</p><p>“Really different,” she muses, as if she’s half-talking to herself. “God, I should know better than to believe what tabloids write, though.”</p><p>“I’m not always this, um,” Miles gestures, unable to come up with a good word, and not wanting to say the words that do come to mind, like <em>ashamed,</em> “but like... I know it was messed up, what happened. <em>Peter</em> knows it was messed up. He feels so guilty about it.”</p><p>“Oh, that part I assumed. Peter is the guilt version of Russian dolls.” She takes a sip of her drink.</p><p>Miles can’t help cracking up a bit at that. “Yeah, he can be. I make him keep it to a minimum.”</p><p>“Do you? That’s not bad, then.” MJ smiles at him, then she sighs. “You know, I’ll tell you a secret. I was half-hoping that he’d ask why I didn’t tell him I was dating Flash, so I could bring up again that he didn’t tell me you were pregnant by him. That was petty of me. And I accuse him of not being able to let go.”</p><p>“Peter really does want you to be happy.”</p><p>“Yeah. He’s... a wonderful man, when it counts.” She finishes her glass. “Well. Maybe in another world, right? In this one... I hope you two are happy.”</p><p>Oh, of all the ways for her to phrase it. When most of Miles’s guilt is <em>because</em> he came from another world and forced a relationship that never should have happened.</p><p>MJ must see how stricken he is, and shows her own inner generous nature when she adds, “Don’t dwell on it too much. Peter and I were already on the rocks... well, when you were probably still in middle school... so it’s not like you’re to blame for us not working out. And you’ve got a kid together, now, so... I don’t suppose you have some baby pictures on you, by the way?”</p><p>Miles is never shy about showing off Parker.</p><p>“Awww, he’s got Peter’s original nose,” MJ gushes. “Good for him. Keep him away from drones.”</p><p>*</p><p>Peter comes down the stairs for breakfast and groans when he sees two foil helium balloons, spelling out 42, tied to the top of one of the chairs. Parker is kneeling on the chair, grabbing at the strings to make the balloons jerk around. “God, Miles. You’re going to make me look at that before I’ve even had my coffee? I thought you liked me.”</p><p>“I do like you,” Miles says, giving him a morning kiss on the cheek as Peter grumpily comes into the kitchen to get himself a mug. “Happy birthday <em>viejo.”</em></p><p>“Hmph.” Peter pours himself the coffee. “What else did you get me? Prepayment on a nursing home? A cemetary plot?”</p><p>“It’s a surprise,” Miles sing-songs.</p><p>“Not sure how I should feel about that.”</p><p>“I’ll give you a hint. It’s something I’ve been looking forward to for a year.”</p><p>Peter’s brow furrows and he sips the coffee.</p><p>Miles can’t keep his hands off the back of his neck as they sit at the table eating breakfast: oatmeal with cinnamon and brown sugar and milk on the side for Miles and Parker, while Peter has a couple of low carb egg muffin things that he zapped in the microwave with his coffee. Usually Peter reads the paper while he eats, but today he just glances at the date of October 14, 2022 and turns it over.</p><p><em>“Oh,</em><em>” </em>Peter blurts out at last.</p><p>Miles makes eye contact and his fingers freeze on his scent gland as he watches Peter inhale sharply, pupils dilating.</p><p>“Ahdone,” says Parker, pulling impatiently at his bib.</p><p>“Just a sec, Parks, don’t get oatmeal on your clothes.” Miles hops up to free their pup from the high chair.</p><p>Peter’s drinking coffee again, practically chugging it, colour visible above the mug on his cheekbones until he tilts his head back to get the last gulp.</p><p>“Um—I already arranged it with my mom, I double-checked this morning, she’s gonna watch Parker in the other dimension until Sunday, whenever we wanna pick him up,” Miles says.</p><p>Peter puts the coffee mug down and closes his eyes, putting his hand to the bridge of his nose and pinching it. “What’s the plan if Parker picks this weekend to start climbing walls or turning invisible?”</p><p>“She texts us.”</p><p>“And if we’re tied?” Peter says bluntly.</p><p>Miles is having a hard time splitting his focus between Peter’s objections and their squirming son’s resistance to having his face and hands wiped clean. “If she doesn’t hear back right away, then she texts Gwen, Gwen already said she’d help. I have a couple of other people, you know, back up the back up—”</p><p>“Doesn’t matter,” Peter interrupts, still sitting there hunched over the table like he’s in some mild pain with his eyes closed. “It’s not like we have time to think of other options, because you’re already started heat, right? How exactly did you time that?”</p><p>“Welllll I was actually hoping it would start tomorrow, but... Forty-two’s always been a kind of... well I don’t know if I’d say lucky number, uh, significant number, maybe, to me, so, with your birthday...” Miles doesn’t know exactly what to make of Peter’s reaction. Peter <em>said</em> that if Miles still wanted to be marked in a year’s time, that he’d mark him. It’s been a year, minus about a week, but same difference, right? “So, uh—I’ll just run Parker over to my mom and—”</p><p>“No.” Peter gets up from the table and starts back towards the stairs.</p><p>“What do you mean, no? You just said—”</p><p>“I’ll take Parker to your mother,” Peter calls without even looking over his shoulder as he starts up the stairs.</p><p>Miles quickly sets Parker down in his playpen to chase Peter up the stairs, ignoring the toddler’s whine at captivity. “But I’m already showered and dressed and—”</p><p>Peter whirls at the top of the stairs and suddenly cages Miles in against the wall, and Miles’s eyes widen as Peter’s scent pours over him, aggressive and sharper than usual.</p><p>“I know. I know you showered,” Peter growls, and his eyes, inches from Miles’s, look almost black. “You washed off my scent and then you wanna go outside, away from me? You think I’d let that happen when you’re smelling like this?”</p><p>It’s <em>very</em> early heat, Miles is pretty sure he barely smells of it at all, even Peter didn’t notice it at first, but... this possessive slam into the wall is making Miles feel some kinda way.</p><p>Peter leans in even closer, resting his forehead against Miles’s, <em>still</em> scenting him, even though you’d never be able to tell Miles was even an omega anymore under the thick layer of scent that’s already on him. “You will stay here, in my house, in my bed, and wait for me.”</p><p>It’s not a command, but it doesn’t need to be. Miles has never wanted to obey an instruction more.</p><p>“Yeah,” Miles breathes, “yeah, I’ll be waiting for you.”</p><p>Peter breathes in and out, and then seems to recall himself. He pulls back, flexing his long fingers as he gives himself a little shake, and glances down the stairs, where Parker is working himself up into a good howl about being not only caged but abandoned.</p><p>“You have condoms this time, right? Maybe get those out,” Peter mutters, looking at Miles’s feet, and heads to the shower.</p><p>*</p><p>His ass starts to twinge and ache inside while Peter’s gone.</p><p><em>Not a problem,</em> Miles thinks. He’s not the same <em>kid</em> he was when he was sixteen, still in denial that he was an omega and <em>definitely</em> in denial that relief for these urges would mean sticking things inside of his ass. He’s <em>very</em> familiar with how it feels to have Peter’s fingers—and his cock, he thinks wistfully, but that’s not available yet—inside him, what they’re doing when they hit him just right. He can definitely do that, definitely.</p><p>When Peter gets back from the other dimension, quickly locking the door and taking the stairs two and three at a time, stripping off clothing and shoes and wrecking some of it as he goes, he arrives partially dressed to a room where Miles is hugging a big armful of Peter’s dirty laundry on their bed, fingers trembling as they fumble at his asshole, a folded towel already drenched beneath him, and a scent of slick that fairly punches Peter in the face.</p><p>“Oh, poor baby,” Peter coos, working to get off his last bits of clothing.</p><p>“You took forever,” Miles says, only it’s not very understandable because he has Peter’s briefs in his mouth again.</p><p>Peter climbs onto the bed once he’s fully naked and takes over thrusting his fingers into Miles, licking his lips at Miles’s ecstatic moan of relief.</p><p>“It’s <em>not easy at all,</em> you big liar,”Miles complains bitterly once Peter gently tugs the dirty underwear away from his mouth. “It kept getting worse and worse and you were <em>gone.”</em></p><p>“I know, I know, I’m sorry,” Peter soothes, “I won’t leave again.”</p><p>“You better not,” Miles grumbles, but presses his face into Peter’s neck, breathing in little huffly noises of contentment as the shooting, seizing pains and clenching aches fade away under Peter’s steady touches and change to feelings of pleasure instead.</p><p>“There you go puppy.” Peter presses a kiss to the side of his head and pulls back a little. “You just need somebody to take care of you, huh? Nobody deserves it more than you.”</p><p>Miles’s cheeks heat even hotter than the rest of his burning up body, and then he throws his head back and moans, because Peter’s replaced his fingers with his tongue and put his hand to Miles’s penis to tug him off.</p><p>“Ah—ah—no—not—more, alpha, <em>Peter,</em> I need your cock, your knot—”</p><p>Peter licks up a line of slick and pulls away. “Then present for me, omega.”</p><p>Miles checks the whimper from the loss of Peter’s touch and scrambles to flip over, his front pressing down on folded arms, his rear up and wiggling enticingly. He has to bite his tongue not to whine when he hears the sound of a condom opening.</p><p><em>Maybe it’ll break,</em> he consoles his inner omega, the part of him that wants to get bred again so bad, heedless of anything else.</p><p>Peter covers him with his body, rocking his penis between Miles’s cheeks and scenting him again, before rising back up to take his cock in hand and prod at his asshole with it.</p><p>“Wish I didn’t have to wear this,” he hears Peter mutter, and Miles opens his mouth to tell him to take it off but wordlessly moans instead when Peter starts to press into him.</p><p>*</p><p>Peter doesn’t bite him the first time they tie, and with the hormones of heat, the perceived rejection hits Miles hard.</p><p>“Hey, hey, hey,” says Peter when not even scruffing Miles with his teeth works to calm him down, “what’s going on, puppy? Why the waterworks?”</p><p>“You—you didn’t—” Miles gulps a breath. “Y-you don’t wanna bite me.”</p><p>“Oh, puppy, I do, <em>God,</em> I do.” Peter presses a kiss to a mating gland. “And I will, but not this first knot, okay? You’re... it’s going to hurt, baby. During and after, and it’ll bleed.”</p><p>“Y’could’ve asked.” Miles wipes his face with the back of his hand. “I don’t care about pain or blood.” He sniffs. “Thought you changed your mind.”</p><p>“I want it so bad, baby,” Peter murmurs against his neck, the breath making him reflexively squirm a bit, even though it tugs on the knot and makes Peter put a hand on his hip to keep him still. “Especially smelling you in heat again. Oh, Miles. You can’t imagine how much I’ve fantasized about this. Putting me in your veins where nothing can wash me off. Make you all mine forever.”</p><p>“Can’t you do it now?” It comes out high and pleading.</p><p>“If we wait until you’re coming—”</p><p><em>“Please</em> do it now, Peter. I want... I wanna remember it.”</p><p>Peter doesn’t answer for a bit, only keeps breathing through his mouth over Miles’s neck. Then there’s a sharp inhale, through the nose instead. “I did tell you I’d do this for you. It’s about time I keep a promise.”</p><p>Peter’s teeth position over the gland, just long enough for Miles to tense up all over with anticipation, and then Peter bites.</p><p>It feels like a bad pinch, more than anything else, at first, but then it suddenly amps up and his whole nape is <em>throbbing.</em> Miles feels more submissive than he can ever remember in his whole life, soundlessly opening his mouth with just this feeling of <em>letting, </em>that was the only way he could put it into words later. Letting Peter hold on to him, letting him come <em>into</em> him, and that same delicious Peter-ness that he always mourned whenever he had to shower is racing to every cell in his body. He’s letting Peter change him, claim him, <em>own</em> him.</p><p>It exhilarates him.</p><p>“Peter,” his voice is suddenly crying out, “oh God, oh, <em>Peter,</em> it’s so good. Thank you.”</p><p>Miles feels blood trickling down across his neck, then Peter releases the bite and swipes his tongue across it, licking the blood up.</p><p>“You’re... you okay kid?” Peter’s voice sounds creaky, unused, and then a little clearer when he says, “Did you just <em>thank</em> me?”</p><p>“Happy,” is all Miles can say, his eyes already shut.</p><p>“Did you... oh my God, wow...” The words come from right behind his ear yet he can only vaguely make them out. “You <em>came</em> from me marking you... oh Miles, how did I get so lucky.”</p><p>There’s a towel or something pushing on his front, and it irritates him. He’s trying to sleep, dammit.</p><p>Peter says something else, and then starts licking him again, and that part Miles likes a lot as he yawns and falls asleep.</p><p>*</p><p>Miles tugs self-consciously at his scarf after ringing the bell for his parents’ apartment. He thinks about opening his phone camera to check if the bandage over his mating bite is fully hidden, but thinks it would be even weirder if the door opened on him doing that.</p><p>Even though he loves his dad, he really hopes his father isn’t home right now. His new, marked scent will definitely make his father unhappy, and he doesn’t want to have to confront that yet.</p><p>His mother’s the only one there with Parker, thankfully. His father is doing overtime for a parade somewhere.</p><p>“I was just about to make pancakes,” she says, while Miles hugs Parker. <em>“</em><em>¿Has desayunado?”</em></p><p><em>“Lo tengo,”</em> Miles says, “but... I could eat some pancakes...”</p><p>She laughs. “Yeah, I bet you could. You finish growing yet?”</p><p>“I think so,” Miles says, with some regret. Maybe it’s because he’s an omega, that he’s only just a little taller than his mother.</p><p>“I bet you still eat a lot,” she says, taking out ingredients.</p><p>“Are pancakes hard to make, mami?”</p><p>“Not hard, exactly, but there’s a trick to it. You wanna learn?”</p><p> Parker plays with a set of alphabet magnets on the fridge while his mother tells him the basics of pancake batter.</p><p>“Don’t stir it up too much. Some lumps are okay.” She frowns at him as he shakes the mixing spoon off into the batter and puts it down. “Take your scarf off, it’s not like I don’t know what’s under there.”</p><p>Miles half-smiles awkwardly and takes the scarf off, stepping into the hall and setting it down on the table there. Parker toddles after him and grabs for the scarf, then sits down on his diapered bottom and buries his face in it.</p><p><em>“Ay, que cachorro tan lindo,”</em> his mom laughs, watching from the kitchen. “You used to steal your dad’s scarves when you were a toddler too. I’d find them wedged in your crib or your toybox. Especially when your dad was in the hospital that time.”</p><p>As Miles walks back into the kitchen, he pauses at the doorframe, where there are still big pencil markings of his height and name going up the painted wood, the last mark a couple inches below his current height.</p><p>Way down the frame, there’s a new mark with <em>PARKER</em> scrawled next to it in his dad’s handwriting.</p><p>“Did Parker give you guys a lot of trouble?” Miles says, watching his mother scoop some batter into a hot pan.</p><p>“Trouble? Of course, babies are trouble. <em>No durmió absolutamente </em>nada<em> la primera noche</em><em>.</em>Brought back memories.” She tweaks at Miles’s chin.</p><p>“Sorry about that,” Miles says at this news that Parker didn’t sleep at all the first night.</p><p>“Oh, it was no big deal. Your father had off Saturday, they took a big nap together, it was cute. I got some pictures.” His mother picks up a spatula. “Okay, now you can’t flip too early, got it? Wait until you see lots of those little bubbles all over.”</p><p>After showing him how to make a few, his mom sits down with Parker to eat the first rounds while Miles attempts to make his own.</p><p>“Don’t try to flip it too early,” his mom warns, even though she can’t see the pancake at all from where she’s sitting when he begins to move his spatula.</p><p>Miles gives it five more seconds before he carefully slides the spatula under and flips the pancake. It’s still a little pale.</p><p>“I gotta say it’s nice to sit down while someone else cooks,” his mother says, drinking coffee and watching Parker, who is holding his fork with one hand and picking up the pancake pieces with the other, then putting them onto the fork to eat them. “I wish I could have had you home more to teach you more about cooking.”</p><p>“You gotta teach me how to make <em>pasteles,” </em>Miles says. “I mean I know how to help put them together, but you know, how to make the dough, and the seasoning for the pork, and stuff. So I can make them with Parker for Christmas when he’s older.”</p><p>
  <em>“Por supuesto que sí.”</em>
</p><p>*</p><p>“Do you ever think about what we’re gonna tell Parker when he notices how much older I am than you, and how young you are?” Peter says.</p><p>“Man, I am thinking about how I’m gonna <em>beat</em> your ass if you make me die,” says Miles, leaning forward as if it’ll make his character run faster in the video game.</p><p>Peter disappears towards the kitchen, and Miles distantly hears the beep of the microwave.</p><p>When Peter comes back with popcorn, Miles’s character is at a shop.</p><p>“Was that question before something you really wanna talk about?” Miles says, grabbing for a handful of popcorn without taking his eyes off the screen.</p><p>“Hold on, this bowl’s yours, it has butter.”</p><p>“Oh hell yeah. Thanks.”</p><p>Peter eats some of his plain salt popcorn. “I dunno if I want to talk about it, exactly, but... I dunno. I keep waiting for this to blow up, I think. The universe—or, the multiverse, I guess—has never let me slide for doing something shitty this long before. When Parker realizes what I did... Like what if Parker’s an alpha? How am I supposed to teach him how to control himself if he can throw it back in my face that I obviously didn’t? Or if he’s an omega—”</p><p>“It matters more how he’s seen us act with his own eyes,” Miles interrupts. “He’s still in diapers, <em>viejo,</em> we got time.”</p><p>Peter tosses a piece of popcorn at him and Miles laughs. “If you’re gonna call me a Spanish name can’t it be something nicer than <em>old man?”</em></p><p>“How about <em>gordo?”</em></p><p>“What’s that mean?”</p><p>“Fatty.”</p><p>A whole handful of popcorn this time.</p><p>“Hey, hey, it sounds better in Spanish!”</p><p>“How do I say <em>skinny?”</em></p><p>
  <em>“Flaco.”</em>
</p><p><em>“Flaco y gordo,” </em>Peter says ruefully, “what a pair.”</p><p>Miles puts his bowl on the coffee table and bullies himself into Peter’s lap, lying sideways and nuzzling his face into Peter’s belly. “I like it,” he says cheekily, looking up at Peter.</p><p>Peter puts his hand on the back of Miles’s neck, runs his fingers over the mark, watches as Miles’s eyelashes flutter as he melts into the touch.</p><p><em>“Mi dueño,” </em>sighs Miles.</p><p>“What’s that one?”</p><p>Miles opens his eyes again. “My owner.”</p><p><em>“Puppy,”</em> Peter groans. “Don’t—you can’t say—”</p><p>“Why not? It’s just us here, I should call you what I like, right?” Miles coaxes. He sits up and into Peter’s lap fully, knocking the other popcorn bowl over carelessly, demanding Peter’s full attention. <em>“Mi alfa. Mi dueeeeeeeño.”</em></p><p>“You’re the one who really rules me,” Peter says, his hips thrusting up a bit against Miles’s pressure. <em>“And</em> you know it.”</p><p>“I like that too,” Miles says, and kisses him.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>*looks at word count, all of which I've written since the beginning of August*<br/>yes I like things a normal amount</p><p>(nice comments are loved)</p><p>Additionally! I would like to share some links to two cute PBP/MM Chinese artists that I have found:<br/><a href="https://lavaaaa.lofter.com/tag/%E8%9C%98%E8%9B%9B%E4%BE%A0%E5%B9%B3%E8%A1%8C%E5%AE%87%E5%AE%99">Cloastra</a> and <a href="https://dishwashers.lofter.com">DishwasherDUO</a>. Note, the format of this art site, it shows one picture per post, you have to click on the picture to see other pictures in the set if it's multiple pictures.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. Epilogue</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p></p><blockquote>
  <p>Alright, teachers. Let’s do this one more time.</p>
  <p>My name is Parker Morales, and for the last sixteen years, I’ve been the son of the one and only Spider-Man.</p>
  <p>At least, that’s what most people think.</p>
  <p>The truth is that my parents are <em> both </em> Spider-Man. Actually, there are lots of Spider-People, and my parents are just two of them. It’s just that most Spider-People are in separate universes, where they don’t interact.</p>
  <p>But this one time, a villain in another universe used a super collider to try to get an alternate version of his family, since they had died in his dimension. Instead, the Collider brought my dad and some other Spider-People through the dimensions to the villain’s dimension, and the Spider-People worked together to stop him.</p>
  <p>That’s how my dad and papa met, and a couple years later they got together and had me. To tell you the truth, I don’t really know all the details of how they got together. They offered to tell me but I’m not trying to hear that, know what I mean? They are embarrassing enough to live with now, I really don’t want to know about how they fell in love.</p>
  <p>So my papa is literally from another dimension, and because of that I can actually go to that dimension without getting damaged. See most people, if they travel dimensions, their atoms start to break down after a little while if they’re in the wrong dimension, but I can spend as long as I want in either one without any problems. Cool, right?</p>
  <p>I got spider DNA from both sides, but so far I can’t use any powers, except that I heal really fast. That’s it. Everybody keeps thinking I am gonna unlock some other power but I haven’t. I even really like climbing, so I wouldn’t mind at all if I could climb walls, but I’ve never been able to. I wish people would just accept that this is it and I’m not going to suddenly start being able to do anything heroic.</p>
  <p>So in sixteen years, a lot of stuff has happened. We moved to Queens, my parents pair bonded, my dad retired, my papa went to space, my dad unretired, they had my sister Grace, my dad retired, Staten Island sank into the ocean, my papa stopped a war, my dad unretired, I got kidnapped and my dad rescued me, my dad retired, they had my brother Benji, Benji zapped another set of kidnappers before they could even kidnap us, my dad unretired and started teaching here at the Xavier Institute, we found out Grace has an allergic reaction to bees, my papa stopped the president from launching nuclear missiles, and my dad retired.</p>
  <p>Honestly I don’t want powers, because it seems like a really hectic way to have to live. My life would have been a lot calmer if my parents weren’t both heroes, and I would have had to attend a lot fewer retirement parties.</p>
  <p>But, as it is, I’m still legally a “mutant and/or metahuman,” so the Xavier Institute it is, and every year you make me write this same stupid essay at the start of the year about “who I am, what I can do, and what I hope to accomplish,” because of the lame “individual curriculum” thing.</p>
  <p>Well, I’m supposed to have my status test this year. I hope I’m a beta. I’m pretty close to my parents and I don’t want stuff to change. My dad and my grandpa don’t get along <em> at all, </em> and I think it’s because alphas get territorial? I don’t know, but that’s what people say. I don’t want to fight with my dad or anybody else. And being an omega is kind of a hassle. The heat thing, and people are rude and condescending and stuff. My papa’s suit hides his smell, and there’s this big debate on the internet about whether Orbweaver is an alpha or a beta. Hardly anyone guesses he’s actually an omega, which just goes to show you that people still have preconceived ideas of what an omega can do or how they look and act.</p>
  <p>So this year I want to be confirmed as a beta and I want to learn more about science and computers and stuff, and nothing about being a hero, please.</p>
</blockquote><hr/><p>Peter sets the essay down and rubs his forehead. “This is seriously what he turned in?”</p><p>“It’s hard for him,” Miles appeals to both Peter and the principal, Storm. “He was really hoping his appeal would get approved and he wouldn’t have to go to Xavier Institute anymore. The culture at the school is so much based around powers…”</p><p>“Helping children cultivate their superhuman abilities is the purpose of the school,” says Storm, “but it is unfortunate that the government forces children like Parker into schools like ours on the assumption that superhuman children are inherently a threat to be monitored, as much as a generation to be educated.”</p><p>“Maybe I should homeschool him,” Peter muses, “but he’s so cautious and a loner by nature. He needs to work on his social skills as much as anything else and school forces that.”</p><p>“But should we really force him at this point? He’s getting old enough to start to figure out what he wants. It’s not like he doesn’t get along well with people when he has to, and he’s never rude or mean, he just likes to be either alone or with the few people he’s close to, like our family. It’s not wrong for him to be like that.”</p><p>“I think you have some discussions to make as a family about that,” Storm says. “Of course, Xavier Institute will do its best to help him meet his educational goals as long as he attends here. I wish you wisdom in making these decisions.” She passes them a sealed envelope. “As you requested, his dynamic status test results.”</p><p>*</p><p>“Parker is pacing in his room,” Grace says when Peter and Miles get in the door.</p><p>“Grace is a tattle tale,” says Benji.</p><p>“That’s not tattling. Tattling would me telling them you ate four ice pops,” says Grace, and sticks out her tongue at her little brother.</p><p>“We’re gonna talk to Parks about school stuff, so you two can keep killing each other down here, provided you keep the violence on there,” says Peter, pointing at the paused television screen where one character is mid-swing of an axe at the other.</p><p>Miles and Peter head up the stairs, ignoring Grace’s shriek of unfairness at the game being unpaused without warning.</p><p>At Parker’s door they can hear the pacing and muttering. Miles knocks.</p><p>“Come in, it’s not locked.”</p><p>When they open the door, Parker is standing there with a lot of nervous energy, like he’s getting ready to say something.</p><p>“Parks,” Miles begins, “we’ve got your status results. I was thinking we could open it together.”</p><p>Parker closes his mouth, then reaches for his neck self-consciously but checks the motion. He sits down at his computer chair. “Sure, okay, yeah.”</p><p>Peter and Miles sit down on Parker’s bed and Miles holds out the envelope to their pup.</p><p>Parker takes it, breathes in and out, then breaks the seal and pulls out the paper.</p><p>Parker looks disappointed, so his parents know the result isn’t beta. The boy breathes in and out and finally says, “Alpha,” turning the paper around so his parents can see it.</p><p>“That’s not a bad thing,” Miles says, taking the paper, and Parker sighs, a little more frustrated.</p><p>“I know it’s not a <em> bad </em> thing,” he says, “but I don’t <em> feel </em> like an alpha and I don’t want to change like that.”</p><p>“You’re still yourself,” Peter says, “it’s just that everybody changes as they get older. Like your first gender puberty changed things about your body, your dynamic presentation does the same thing. Puberty and presentation are both rough, I’m not gonna lie, but you can handle it.”</p><p>Parker looks a little vulnerable. “Does it mean I’m gonna start not liking how you smell?”</p><p>“I hope not,” says Peter, smiling. “I never stopped liking how Aunt May smelled. Alphas can get along, Parker, if they want to and work at it. They can be friends or even fall in love.”</p><p>Parker fidgets with the string of his hoodie. “I guess it could be worse… I mean, not that being an omega is <em> bad, </em> Papa, but I really don’t want to deal with it.”</p><p>“I know, I read your start of school essay,” Miles says.</p><p>“Oh.” Parker’s ears get a little red. “I was kind of mad when I wrote that. I didn’t know they were gonna show it to you.”</p><p>“The law isn’t fair. I know it’s frustrating to you that you can’t go a school that focuses more on your interests.”</p><p>“Actually…” Parker puts his hands together. “Um… right. I’ve been thinking and I have an idea. I was thinking… what if I went to live with Grandpa and Abuelita this year? Like, went to regular school in the other Brooklyn?”</p><p>“‘What if’?” says Peter slowly. “You mean, that's what you want, right?”</p><p>“Right, yeah, but… would it be that bad? Nobody over there would have to know there’s anything weird about me.”</p><p>Peter and Miles look at each other.</p><p>Over all, Parker has always been a good kid. He’s dealt with a lot of scary situations no pup should have to deal with, and he’s always kept a level head. He’s also always been a kid who liked to be with his family, who is very close to both his parents.</p><p>That part makes this hard. But the very fact that Parker wants this enough to ask for it despite being a kid who likes to be with his parents…</p><p>“I don’t think we’re saying no, right Peter?” Miles says first, and Peter nods. “It’s a big decision.”</p><p>“There <em> is </em> something you have to think about,” Peter says. “The multiverse… the way things tend to happen, for people like us…”</p><p>“Is this that ‘Theory of Narrative Causality’ thing that Professor Prachett talks about?” says Parker, a little resigned.</p><p>“Yeah. You and your Papa are the only people, as far as we know, who can go between two universes without limits. So if a challenge ever comes around that require that…”</p><p>“Yeah, I know, great power et cetera. But I don’t <em> have </em> great power.”</p><p>“Great power is relative to what needs to be done. You just keep going,” says Miles.</p><p>Peter says, “Papa’s right. You try to make the right next decision from where you are. As your parents, that’s all we hope for you.”</p><p>*</p><p>“Wow,” says Parker, “this was really your room Papa?”</p><p>“Yeah. It looked different then, though. I only had a twin bed, and I had a drafting table over here… this looks…” Miles looks around. It looks like a guest bedroom, which he supposes is what it’s been for over a decade. Rent control has kept his parents in the same two bedroom apartment as back when he was a kid. “I’m sure Abuelita and Grandpa won’t mind if you wanna put up some posters or something… Parker?”</p><p>Parker’s disappeared again. “Abuelita? Abuelita can I put up some posters?”</p><p>“Of course, it’s your room now,” Miles hears his mother say. “You hungry yet? The asopao de pollo is almost ready.”</p><p>“Am I!”</p><p>Miles smiles a little. His mom’s cooking is the best…</p><p>“Hey, Abuelita, did I tell you? I’m gonna take Spanish at my new school. Will you help me with my homework?”</p><p><em> “Claro que sí, </em> Parker.”</p><p>Miles hears his dad’s deep, rumbling chuckle. “You just watch out, Parks, Abuelita’s gonna talk nothing but Spanish to you.”</p><p>“If he wants to learn, it’s good! He should learn when he’s young, it’s easier,” his mother’s voice argues back. “Sit down, sit down.”</p><p>Miles sits down on the new bed in his old room.</p><p>He looks at the windows. They’re one thing in the room that really hasn’t changed. Seventeen years ago, almost exactly. That narcomedusa, darting in the window, when he was in very early heat.</p><p>And then… the next day, Peter, coming through the window. Because even though Miles started it in such a horrible way, even though Peter knew it was wrong…</p><p>Peter couldn’t resist him.</p><p>Miles feels himself shiver a little. Self-consciously, he puts his hand to his mating scar.</p><p>He was only a little older than Parker back then. Now Miles is thirty-three, but that’s still seven years to go until he’s as old as Peter was when they had sex the first time. That’s hard for him to wrap his mind around. It makes it easier to understand some things in retrospect, stuff that he understood the reasons behind but couldn’t really fully get the feelings at the time. Peter’s guilt. His parents’ feelings, especially because he’s now aware that his mom is technically a year younger than Peter, his father only a year older.</p><p>The thought of someone his age being interested, sexually, in Parker… of course he’d be furious. That was all natural, but…</p><p>“Miles? <em> Ven a comer,” </em> his mother’s voice calls, and then says, “That means <em> come eat.” </em></p><p><em> “Ven a comer,” </em> he hears Parker repeat, “I know <em> comer, </em> it’s the infinitive, right? Like, ‘to eat.’”</p><p><em> “Estoy yendo,” </em> Miles calls, and stands up.</p><p>*</p><p>When he comes back to their dimension, it’s late and Grace and Benji are already in bed. Peter smiles and welcomes him back, but he’s doing something on his laptop, so Miles takes his time taking his shoes off, watching Peter peripherally.</p><p>Peter’s let himself go totally grey—even his stubble is grey—but even so, Miles finds it hard to believe he’s fifty-seven. Maybe it’s some effect of the spider bite on the aging process, the same thing that speeds up healing functioning as a kind of natural, perpetual cosmetic surgery. To the alpha’s great exasperation, he never has been able to flatten his belly; to the contrary, it’s now a little bigger and even softer.</p><p>It’s really nice to cuddle against; all the pups love cuddling with their father, even Parker despite his age. Miles once told Peter he was outvoted four to one: the family loves his belly, so it’s a good thing.</p><p>“You’re giving me the creeps,” Peter says without looking away from his screen.</p><p>Miles laughs. “You really caught me?”</p><p>“Is there something on my face or something?” Peter says, a little distracted, and types something. “Hang on, I’m almost done here.”</p><p>“No. I was just thinking how you’re a total silver fox.”</p><p>That makes Peter turn away from the screen to give Miles his full attention. “Jesus Christ,” he says in a tone of mild consternation. “I’m a what?”</p><p>“You heard what I said.”</p><p>“Yeah but what brought it on? I’m pretty sure I look the same as yesterday.”</p><p>“You do,” says Miles, putting his shoes on the rack. “I just like you.”</p><p>“That really all? Wait, seriously wait just one minute.” Peter types for a minute, clicks something, and then closes the laptop and sets it on the coffee table. “Okay. C’mere, puppy.”</p><p>Miles chuckles and walks over, lets Peter take him in his arms. “After all this time, I’m still your puppy?”</p><p>Peter grins and laces his arms around Miles’s waist firmly. “Yeah, always. So what’s going on?”</p><p>Miles leans his forehead against Peter’s, breathes in his alpha’s scent, and when he exhales, all the twisty feelings float away. “Hey. <em> Mi dueño.” </em></p><p>“Oh,” Peter says in a different tone, “you want something, huh puppy?”</p><p>“Is it too late to have another baby?”</p><p>“Oh,” Peter says, in a <em> different, </em> different tone. “Oh. Huh. Uh… empty nest syndrome already?”</p><p>Miles nuzzles Peter’s neck. “Maybe.”</p><p>“I’m…” Peter laughs. “I’m getting <em> really old </em> for this, Miles. It’s not that I don’t <em> want </em> to, but…”</p><p>“If I ask,” says Miles in his prettiest tone, giving Peter his biggest eyes, “you won’t say no, will you?”</p><p>"Puppy," Peter says in an admonishing way, but Miles knows from the look in Peter's eyes that the omega has already won.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Some serious talk about cope fiction follows, read only if you want to read that.</p><p> </p><p>For me, this is a work exploring a chiefly emotional fantasy of having an adult/minor sexual relationship where the adult is really caring and helpful and loving to the minor and the minor ends up overall okay. In reality, in my experience with adult/minor relationships, the adult is exploitative and abusive and the minor ends up having to cope with the consequences alone. In real life, whether adult/minor relationships are illegal or not in a certain place, they are a bad idea such a vast majority of the time that I believe they should always be avoided. Do not mistake this work as advocating real life sexual relationships with such large age gaps where the younger person is under eighteen. I am coming to fantasy to give myself something that I did not and cannot get from reality.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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